The Khedive's Egypt ; or, The old house of bondage under new masters

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT;

OR, f

THE OLD HOUSE OF BONDAGE UNDER
NEW MASTERS.

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT;

OR,

THE OLD HOUSE OF BONDAGE UNDER
NEW MASTERS.

BY EDWIN DE LEON,

EX-AGENT AND CONSUL-GENERAL IN EGYPT.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEAKLE & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

1877.

.

(All rights reserved.)

PKEFACE.

THE AUTHOK'S APOLOGY.

WHAT can anybody have to tell us about the Nile-land
that has not already been said or sung ad nauseam ?

Painfully conscious of the fact, that the collected bulk
of all the writings on Egypt, if laid one above the other,
would rival the height and magnitude of one of the
smaller Pyramids, the present writer pleads as an
apology, for contributing another stone to the tumulus,
his exceptional advantages of many years' residence in
Egypt in an official capacity, his intimate public and
private relations with the last three Rulers — including
the present Khedive — and his recent return from that
country, which he left in April last. He therefore be-
lieves he has much to say about the. Khedive's Egypt
that is new, and, as he trusts, interesting — not only to
the general reader, but to the thoughtful student of
man and history as well. Written in no partisan or
partial spirit, this book professes to give a photographic
picture of the changes wrought in the old "House of
Bondage " by Mehemet Ali and his successors ; and its
true condition, social, political, and economical, to-day,

IV PREFACE.

when the second dawn of a new civilisation seems break-
ing over that portion of the East which hailed the first,
long ere Greece or Rome had emerged from the " double
darkness of Night, and of Night's daughter, Ignorance."

In this belief he entrusts his book to the tender mercies
of the public, and the tougher charities of the critics —
admitting in advance, most cheerfully, that it is not " one
of those books no gentleman's library should be without,"
against which Charles Lamb so solemnly cautioned his
young friend. All the facts and figures this book con-
tains have been collected on the spot, and verified, as far
as possible ; and the writer is quite sure that, as he " has
nothing extenuated," neither has he " set down aught in
malice," concerning a country and a people, for both of
which he entertains a sincere affection.

LONDON, July, 1877.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EASTWARD HO ! FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO PORT SAID.

PAGE

Leave Southampton on P. and 0. steamer — The three chief routes
to Egypt — "Biscay's sleepless bay" — Sudden step from winter
to spring — The Rock and "Rock scorpions" — Remnants of
Spanish and Moorish occupation — Fruit and flower markets in
mid-winter — Malta and the Maltese — Marine theatricals — Port
Sai'd — First glimpses — The peculiarities of place and people —
Off by canal by moonlight for Ismai'lia 1

CHAPTER II.

ISMAILIA — THE DESERT — CAIRO.

Reach Ismai'lia at sunrise — First view — The Custom-house
nuisance again — The faith in things unseen — The Hotel Paris
— A truly Parisian cuisine — Stroll over the town — Its public
and private gardens — Peculiar charms of this oasis in the desert
— The railway route, via Zagazig, to Cairo — Along the Fresh-
Water Canal — Should the Chinese coolie be imported? — The
Suez Canal and Euphrates Railway route — Some facts and
figures about the Suez Canal — Mention of one of its founders . 23

CHAPTER III.

OLD AND NEW CAIRO.

Approach to Cairo — Sights and scenes en route — Wayside views
and voices — " Backsheesh, Howadji ! " the same old tune —
Nature and man unchanged — Startling changes in the environs
of Cairo — Disappearance of walls and appearance of new boule-
vards, a la Naussmann — Surprises in store for the returning
pilgrim after ten years' absence — What cannot now be seen
from Shepheard's balcony — Cairo as it was and as it is — The
old quarter and the new 47

Vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FOUNDERS OF THE DYNASTY.

I'AGK

Mehemet All — Soldier of fortune — Satrap and Viceroy — Parallel
between the Napoleons of the East and of the West — His
strange career — Dreams of an Arab empire, like that of the
Caliphs— Why he failed in establishing it— England's interpo-
sition— Kage of the trapped lion — Cloudy close of a bright day
— Personal traits and anecdotes of Mehemet Ali — His son
Ibrahim, regent and successor — His short lease of power — Can
his dream be now fulfilled ? — Keasons for the establishment of
an Arab empire at the present moment 63

CHAPTER V.

ABBAS PACHA.

Accession of Abbas Pacha — Personal description of him — His
peculiar character and habits — A Turk of the Turks— Con-
trasted with Sai'd. Pacha— His treatment of his people — The
new " House of Bondage " under him — His closing tragedy — A
dead man's drive — His son El-Hami — A fated family line . 80

CHAPTER VI.

THE REIGN OF SAID PACHA.

Sa'id Pacha's accession — The new era introduced by him — Reversal
of his predecessor's policy, and private conduct — Attempt to
bind together the family faggot — His social habits — His great
y£fes — His princess, Ingee Khanum — His personal appearance
and character — Eesemblance physically and morally to " Bluff
King Hal " — His military mania — Life under tents, and black
knights in chain armour — His work in Egypt — A bright dawn
and stormy sunset 91

CHAPTER VII.

THE FOREIGN COLONY IN EGYPT IN OLDEN TIME.

The foreign colony in Egypt, under the earlier Viceroys — Classifi-
cation of them — The merchant princes — The European army
officers — Suleyman Pacha, or Colonel Seves, commander-in-
chief — Some anecdotes of him — Other conforming and non-con-
forming officials — Some curious specimens — Talking only
Arabic ! — Peculiar privileges of foreign consuls-general and their
proteges — The new mixed tribunals superseding consular
authority — A few words about them, and the old doctrine of
"Exterritoriality" 103

CONTENTS. Vii

CHAPTER VIII.
THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

PAGB

Divisions of Modern Egypt : Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt, and
Upper Egypt — The Soudan— Chief Exports — Facts and figures
— Population and Mortality — Difficulties and drawbacks native
rulers must contend against — Smelfungus at Cairo — His sources
of information — An appeal for justice on behalf of the new
masters of the " House of Bondage" " — Said Pacha's sad experi-
ence with his model villages — The new foreign employes — The
Government more generous than just in some respects . .117

CHAPTER IX.

HELOUAN.

An A ix les Bains in the desert — What and where is Helouan?
— On the road to it — The grand boulevard to the citadel —
Glimpses of interiors en route — The Mokattam Hills — their
quarries — Through the desert, in view of the Pyramids — Ap-
pearance of Helouan — Its sights and smells — The sulphur baths
— The hotel — the view from its roof — An enthusiastic collector
of antiques ......... 134

CHAPTER X.

THE KHEDIVE ISMAIL AS A PUBLIC AND A PRIVATE MAN.

His lucky star — The accident that made him Khedive — Achmet
Pacha's closing scene — His character — A fatal fete and lucky
illness — Halim Pacha's peril and escape — What might have
been but for an open drawbridge — My early impressions of
Prince Ismail — His love for "Naboth's vineyard" — The man
and the monarch, briefly epitomized — Things he has done and
things he has left undone — His building mania . . . 153

CHAPTER XI.

FOUR NATIVE MINISTERS AND HEKKEKYAN BEY.

Some of the Khedive's native ministers — Nubar Pacha — His life
and work — Personal traits — A family of diplomatists — Cherif
Pacha — Description of him — Riaz Pacha — The strange story of
Ismail Sadyk Pacha, the Mouffetich — An Egyptian Wolsey — A
visit to his three palaces, and what we saw there — The moral of
his rise and fall — Hekkekyan Bey — His theory of the Pyramids 176

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

THE LAND OF EGYPT AND ITS PRODUCTIONS.

PAGE

Egypt nothing, if not agricultural — Contrasted with India and
China— Feeds her own population — " The life of Egypt " — Five
million acres under cultivation — How cultivated — Cotton culture

— Flax culture — Sugar culture— Extracts from recent report on
Khedive's sugar estates — Curious facts and figures relating to
it— The grain crops— The date and fruit culture — Land taxa-
tion — A painful picture of a year's work in the fields . . 200

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FELLAHEEN.

Who is the fellah, and what is he ?— His earlier history as written
on the tombs and temples, in the Scriptures, on stone and
papyrus — A letter three thousand years old concerning him, in
the British Museum — How Joseph treated him under Pharaoh

— Origin of land tenure in Egypt— Under the Mamelukes and
the house of Mehemet Ali, the new masters of his " House of
Bondage" — His treatment under successive viceroys — His present
condition ........•• 222

CHAPTER XIV.

SCIONS OF THE ROYAL HOUSE OF MEHEMET ALI.

The sons of Ismail, and other scions of the royal house, yet sur-
viving — The sons of Abbas and of Said Pachas blasted in the
bud — The sons of the Khedive — Mohammed Tewfik, heir pre-
sumptive—His brothers Hussein and Hassan— Characteristics
of each — The younger sons — How the Khedive is educating his
children— Their uncle Halim Pacha, formerly heir apparent
under the old rule — His character— Description of how he
hunted the gazelle with hawk and hound — Revival in Egypt
of a medieval sport — Halim's prospects ..... 244

CHAPTER XV.

IRRIGATION AND THE BARRAGE.

" The life of Egypt " — The barrage — Proposition to pull down the
Pyramids to construct it — A French engineer's perilous predica-
ment—How he extricated himself— Said Pacha's new city on a
xnedal !— Egyptian irrigation— How it is managed— Proposed
substitute for the irrigation of the Delta— Something about the
barrage . . . . ......

CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTER XVI.

EDUCATION IN EGYPT.

PAGE

What the Khedive has done in educating his people — The
public schools — Their chief inspector, Dor Bey — Information
derived from him — Slight sketch of the character and purposes
of new schools, civil and military — The Polytechnic School at
Abbassieh — The Missionary schools — Miss Whately's school,
and the German — Education for women — A queen worthy of
her place — The coming race of Egyptian women. . . . 271

CHAPTER XVII.

SKETCHES OF TWO FAMOUS ANGLO-AFRICAN EXPLORERS.

Captain Richard Burton and Gordon Pacha at Cairo — Description
of the men — Their latest work in Africa — The land of Midian
— The Soudan — Burton's first appearance in Egypt — Some
curious recollections — His last visit — What he was then and
now — Burton's discovery — Gordon Pacha's personal character-
istics— His proposed work in Central Africa .... 282

CHAPTER XVIII.

MIXED JUDICIAL TRIBUNALS IN EGYPT.

Efforts of Sublime Porte, for twenty-five years, to break down
the doctrine of Exterritoriality in the Turkish dominions —
What Exterritoriality means — Mixed tribunals attempted to be
introduced, under " Hatti Houmai'on " of Sultan in 1856, and
again tried by Egyptian Government in 1860 — Why prevented
by Consuls-general on those occasions — Nubai Pasha's persistent
efforts and final partial success — His plan as opposed to the
plan recently adopted — My own action in the matter — The
present tribunals entitled to a fair trial 297

CHAPTER XIX.

EGYPTIAN FINANCE AND RESOURCES.

Absorbing interest felt therein — The doctors disagreeing — State of
the patient in the eyes of a non-professional — A plain state-
ment as to the amounts actually received from foreign loans by
Khedive— What did he do with it ?— Testimony of the Times
partly exculpatory of the Khedive — Curious and instructive
letter from a native Egyptian official, translated from the
French — His statements of resources, and suggestions for their
increase — A few facts and figures 315

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX.
EGYPTIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS.

The social life of Egypt — Native society unchanged— The ladies
of the hareem, and their adoption of French millinery — The
root of the evil — A royal wedding party in a Khedivial hareem
described — The Khedive's entertainments — His breakfasts,
dinners, and soirees dansantes at Ab-din ... . 328

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SOUDAN.

What and where is the Soudan ? — Its first annexation to Egypt
— Conquest and occupation by Mehemet Ali — His visit there —
Establishes Khartoum as its capital — Abbas Pacha's treatment
of it — Said Pacha's visit — His proclamations — Attempts to
connect it with Cairo, by rail and river — Reasons of failure —
Mr. Fowler's plan, adopted by the Khedive — Some interesting
extracts from his reports — Present position and prospects of
Gordon Pacha 342

CHAPTER XXII.

IMPROVEMENTS AND PUBLIC WORKS IN EGYPT.

Public improvements — Where some of the money has gone —
General statement of public works and improvements during
the present reign— Thirty or forty millions of pounds' worth
accounted for — What and where are these improvements? —
Harbour and lighthouse improvements — Gas and water works
— Merchant marine — Thirteen hundred miles of railway com-
pleted in last twelve years 362

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE ARMY OF EGYPT.

An indeterminate quantity — Curious exemption of Cairenes and
Alexandrians from conscription — How the conscription is made
— What successive viceroys have done for the army — The army
and the military chest — Excellent drill and organization of the
forces — The American and other foreign officers — The Khedive's
true, and Egypt's wisest policy 369

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SHADOW OF THE STRANGER.

Egypt's experience — Her three periods : Pagan, Christian, and
Mussulman — International jealousies — Shall the Mediterranean
be a French or English " lake "?— Curious history of this

CONTENTS. XI

PAGE

rivalry in regard to the overland transit — Cost of conciliating
the rival nationalities to Egypt — Mariette Bey's characteriza-
tion of the Egyptians — The irony of their destiny — The shadow
of the stranger eclipsing native government — Laissez nousfaire! 381

CHAPTER XXV.

BY CAIRO TO EUROPE, via ALEXANDRIA.

By rail from Cairo to Alexandria — Disturbing a hareem — The last
of backsheesh — The country en route — Two rival capitals —
How an Alexandrian feels at Cairo, and how a Cairene regards
him — Something about the Egyptian Brighton — Old and New
Alexandria — The place and people — The different routes back
to Europe — The Brindisi route — Picturesque old places on the
Italian coast — The Moorish pirates — Through Italy — Bologna
and its museum — La Belle France and adieu to Egypt . . 394

EGYPT'S FUTURE. . 409

APPENDIX A.

Concession and alleged Cost of Suez Canal to Egypt . . .415

APPENDIX B.
The Suez Canal and the English Government .... 418

APPENDIX C.
The Mixed Tribunals 422

APPENDIX D.

Population of the Foreign Colony 426

APPENDIX E.
Firman changing Succession 428

APPENDIX F.
Egyptian Exploration of Central Africa ..... 429

APPENDIX G.
Mr. Goschen's tabular Statement ....... 432

APPENDIX H.

Exports and Prices of Egyptian Crops . ... 433

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

PANORAMA OF SUEZ CANAL Frontispiece.

VIEW NEAR LAKE TIMSAH To face page 23

PORT OF SUEZ n 42

THE GRAIN MARKET AT SUEZ .... „ 103

LAND TRAFFIC ....... „ 200

WATER TRAFFIC . 222

SQUARE OF MUDIRIEH AT KHARTOUM . . . 286

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

ERRATUM.

Page 46. foot-note, for " Appendix B " read "Appendix A."

ing it and the young cities which have sprung
up, like Jonah's gourd, upon its banks within
the last ten years.

Our steamer was one of the largest of those
which pass through the canal, a magnificent
specimen of naval construction in all respects,

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT,

CHAPTER I.

EASTWARD HO! FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO PORT SAID.

Leave Southampton on P. and 0. steamer — The three chief routes
to Egypt — "Biscay's sleepless bay" — Sudden step from winter to
spring — The Rock and " Rock scorpions " — Remnants of Spanish and
Moorish occupation — Fruit and flower markets in mid-winter —
Malta and the Maltese — Marine theatricals — Port Sa'id — First
glimpses — The peculiarities of place and people — Off by canal by
moonlight, for Ismailia.

LEAVING Southampton, under the cold and
cloudy skies of a November morning in 1876,
on the Peninsular and Oriental steamship
Khedive, bound for Port Said, Suez, and India,
we sailed for the Suez Canal — that eighth
wonder of the world — with a view of examin-
ing it and the young cities which have sprung
up, like Jonah's gourd, upon its banks within
the last ten years.

Our steamer was one of the largest of those
which pass through the canal, a magnificent
specimen of naval construction in all respects,

2 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

combining power, speed, space, safety, and com-
fort in an eminent degree; and our long run
was more like a pleasure trip than a sea voyage,
owing, to the admirable arrangements of the
company. Even the cuisine, which is not
generally the strong feature on English boats,
left nothing to desire ; and the bath arrange-
ments were most ample and satisfactory. We
carried one hundred and thirty first-class pas-
sengers, and could have comfortably accommo-
dated a score or two more.

We chose the long route to Egypt for the
benefit of the sea voyage of fourteen days'
duration, in preference to the faster lines, via
Brindisi or Marseilles, by which Egypt may be
reached in half the time. Last year I dined one
Thursday evening at London, and lunched at
Alexandria on the ensuing Thursday, taking the
P. and 0. Brindisi steamer. The route via Mar-
seilles and Naples, in the French messageries
steamers, takes about two days more from Lon-
don, and you are six days at sea instead of three.
The fare by all these lines is very nearly the
same ; the cheapest route is by Liverpool screw
steamers to Alexandria, and the Cunard, Moss,
and Leyland lines, from the former place, are
said to be well-appointed and comfortable :
making the run in from twelve to fourteen days,
at little more than half the price of the other
lines already mentioned.

"BISCAY'S SLEEPLESS BAY." 3

From Southampton to " Biscay's sleepless
bay," where the " winds were rough," as in
Childe Harold's day, our voyage was monoto-
nous ; but, on reaching that well-known point,
we were " rocked in the cradle of the deep " in
a most satisfactory or unsatisfactory manner ;
and the yawning gaps at the hitherto well-filled
table testified that tribute was being as faith-
fully paid to Neptune, as though the worship of
the heathen gods still prevailed. From lips
brimming over with song and jest but the day
before, now proceeded only sounds of woe, not
" most musical," though " melancholy ;" and the
possessor of " sea-legs " was happier than he of
more symmetrical but more unsteady supporters.
This game of pitch and toss continued until we
ran under lee of the land approaching the
Spanish coast, where Cape St. Vincent boldly
looms up from afar : with its watch-tower
perched on its highest cliff like an eagle's eyry,
and barracks in which some Spanish troops are
stationed for the protection of the customs
duties.

We had left Southampton on Thursday, and
on the ensuing Tuesday the grim frowning Eock
of Gibraltar (G-ebel el TarHs, or BocJc of TariJc)
looked down upon us, as we rapidly steamed
along the shores of Spain, and finally cast
anchor beneath the shadow of the mountain

4 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

at early morning, while sunshine and warmth,
like those of early spring, bathed his bald old
brow. For we felt we had gained another land
and another climate than those we had parted
from but four brief days before, and had made
a sudden plunge into sunlight, and an earth
covered with verdure and flowers. The little
boats that rowed off to meet us were filled with
ripe luscious fruit and fresh flowers ; while the
vendors of such souvenirs of Gibraltar as the
place could boast of boarded the steamer im-
mediately, with clamorous proffers of their
wares in broken bits of several languages —
English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Of course I shall not attempt to describe the
famous " Kock," whose history and prominent
features are so familiar to everybody. Yet even
here the intruding Saxon has made his mark,
until the grim old Moorish pirate, Tarik — who
has left it his name — would not recognize his
eyry, were he permitted, like Hamlet's father,
to " revisit the glimpses of the moon," and look
upon it again.

The fortifications constitute the chief feature,
yet a drive through the town, that nestles down
by the seaside under their protection, will
richly repay the traveller by the curious con-
trasts of character, costume, and race which will
everywhere meet his eye. Like Malta, the

THE " HOCK SCORPIONS." 5

place has a most hybrid aspect, and so have the
population — half Oriental, half European, with
a strong infusion of the Spanish, which is
sui generis and most characteristic.

The English here, as at Malta, have only
encamped, not colonized. They have not fused
and mixed in with the native population, as has
been usually the case with Anglo-Saxon settle-
ment in other lands. " The Eock scorpion " of
Gibraltar, like the Maltese, does not hold social
intercourse with the English residents, who
constitute a society within themselves apart
from the foreign element ; and as it was in the
beginning, so it is to-day, and will be to-morrow,
on both the rocks referred to ; held by force and
by fear, not by affection or by choice, as appa-
nages of England.

Among the " Kock scorpions" (as the officers
term the native population) the Spanish type is
strongly marked in men and women, with an
occasional infusion of Moorish blood, which, in
fact, is perceptible throughout the whole of
Spain.

The men are lithe, swarthy, and sinewy, with
black hair and flashing eyes ; the women, espe-
cially the younger ones, decidedly pretty and
gipsy-looking. It was a, fete day, sacred to some
saint, when we landed, and many of the children
were dressed in white for their first communion,

6 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

and presented a most pleasing picture. The
women, still wearing the Spanish mantilla, filled
the narrow pathways going to or returning from
chapel, and added to the picturesqueness of the
scene to eyes, which for days past had rested
only on the tumbling waves of the dreary sea.

The streets are steep and narrow, with tall
stone houses of quaint architecture hemming
them in— with glimpses of green gardens, in
which gleam the golden oranges among the
foliage, through open gateways. The public
buildings are by no means remarkable, except for
their mean appearance, contrasting thus most
unfavourably with the other rock, Malta, where
the grand palaces of the old knights have been
appropriated for the purpose. At Gibraltar the
British Government has pushed simplicity to
meanness, in the Governor's palace and other
public buildings, not having had any old knights'
palaces ready at hand.

But the market-place struck us most, with its
rich supplies of ripe fruit displayed in tempting
profusion — orange, lemon, banana, blended with
the fruits of less tropical regions ; while the
baskets of roses and other fresh flowers per-
suaded us that we must have been suddenly
transported from November into June.

At mid-day we sailed away from this garden-
spot in the waste of waters, whose grim fortifica-

VAIN HOPES OF THE " KOCK SCORPIONS.'' 7

tions contrast so strongly with its green gardens
that cover the slopes below, as though War and
Peace were disputing the ownership of the spot :
and whose summer-like sun, even at this wintry
season, gilded and warmed impartially the two.
One cannot wonder that Spanish pride chafes
at the English occupation of a spot so favoured,
the key to two seas; and that even the "Rock
scorpions," whose hlood is Spanish, although
profiting by the garrison and the expenditure it
involves for their benefit, should equally resist
denationalization, and look longingly forward (as
I am told they do) to the day when the flag of
Spain shall replace the banner of St. George
on that lofty height. The British Government,
however, shows no disposition to relinquish its
grasp on this stronghold, which it still keeps
strengthening, and it would be idle to dream of
wresting it away by force ; while seven years'
provisions for the garrison, stowed safely away,
forbid the possibility of starving out the place
by investment.

We had six hours' detention at Gibraltar,
which we passed most pleasantly, repairing to
the beautiful and shady gardens, which do so
much credit to the public spirit of the people ;
and, with a basket of fruit at our feet purchased
for two or three shillings, sitting in open air,
surveying the beauties of earth and sky. Gazing

8 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

up to the frowning rock, at its summit we could
discern the sentries pacing to and fro, reduced
to the size of small children, on that airy height ;
from which, in very windy weather, one would
imagine they might be blown off bodily into the
sea ; and turning our eyes still further upward,
could rejoice in a vision of that blue unclouded
canopy of sky, which we had lost sight of for
many weary weeks before in dear old dingy,
grimy, cloud-covered London.

For the rest of our trip we sailed over smooth
seas, under sunny skies — the blue expanse of
water unruffled by a blast, resembling more a
placid lake than the ever-restless and unquiet
sea ; reaching Malta on the fourth day, and
passing six hours there, which, of course, we
spent on shore.

This half-way house between Europe and
Africa has been so often and so well portrayed,
that it would be an impertinence to reiterate a
thrice-told tale in describing its frowning forts
bristling with guns on the sea side, and the wide
stretch of rocky plain, unrelieved by trees or
verdure, which lies behind the town or towns,
and the fortifications, which look strong
enough to repel any foe, however numerous or
however bold ; nature and art having combined
to render Malta, or rather Valetta, as impreg-
nable almost as Gibraltar.

THE KEYS TO THE MEDITERRANEAN. 9

With these two keys to the Mediterranean,
and the additional latch-key to Port Said, that
sea may indeed now be regarded as an English
lake, and John Bull's India house perfectly pro-
tected against either burglars or sneak- thieves.
What the energy and foresight of Lieutenant
Waghorn first provided in the " overland
route" through Egypt, in shortening the road
to India, the supplementary work of M. de
Lesseps has made even easier and safer, under
all contingencies. But without the possession
of the keys already mentioned, with the addi-
tional pass-key of the Eed Sea, the Great Bear
might contend with the Lion for the future
possession of Asia — a conflict now seemingly
indefinitely postponed.

Of the steep rocky streets, which you have to
scale by actual steps cut in the stone (by some
approaches apparently as high as the dome of
St. Peter's), with tall stone houses shutting in
the narrow streets, showing a strip of blue sky
above and a glimpse of the sea at each end ; of
the ever-increasing escort of ragged native beg-
gars, which precedes and follows the stranger's
steps, whining piteously for alms in all the
languages of the Levant, which are those of
Babel ; of the preponderance of the military
element in the streets when you reach the
Strada Eeale of Valetta, on which stand the

10 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Governor's palace, the Guard House, the Library,
the clubs, and the hotels and cafes ; — are not
all these familiar to the Indian traveller, the
Egyptian voyager, and even the more enter-
prising of the tourists chaperoned by Messrs.
Cook and Gaze ?

But Malta presents more curious contrasts
and more interesting studies, than those which
first strike the stranger's eye, after landing and
sauntering slowly through its unsavoury streets,
where a congress of smells, as well as of lan-
guages, seems ever in permanent session.

The conflict of races, and their refusal, not
only to amalgamate, but to meet and co-operate
with each other — the evident stamp of subju-
gation on the one, and of imperious domination
on the other part — is even more perceptible
at Malta than at Gibraltar; and the mutual
repugnance of the two races more strongly
evinced in speech, in act, and in print. You
cannot pick up a local newspaper without get-
ting proof of this; and the language employed
by these local editors is not even loyal,
much less flattering to their local governors, or
the government they represent. From the
Governor down to the lowest official, the
language of denunciation and dispraise is freely
used ; and assertions that would be regarded as
libellous or actionable elsewhere freely indulged

HALF-WAY HOUSE BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA. 11

in, and greedily devoured by the Maltese portion
of the population. A winter spent at Malta
enables me to speak understandingly of place
and people ; and the result of my observation
was, that if England depended solely or chiefly
on the loyalty of her Maltese subjects to retain
the island, her tenure would be insecure indeed !
The native Maltese are a curious race —
Italian, with a strong infusion of Arab or
Moorish blood in them : and with a most mis-
cellaneous mixture of the blood of the different
orders of foreign knights, who formerly lived and
loved on the island, some of whose vows were
notoriously regarded more " in the breach than
the observance." Like their rocky home, the
people are a kind of half-way house between the
West and the East; but in them the Eastern
element predominates. They have even in-
vented a language on the same principle — half
" Lingua Franca," half Arabic — unwritten, yet
currently spoken and understood among them-
selves. They seem almost amphibious — the
boys diving down into the sea and bringing up
the pennies thrown into the water from the
ship's side ; and the boatmen looking half fisher-
man, half pirate, as they paddle across from
Valetta to Sleima for a twopenny fare ; the
same boatmen, by the way, having this pecu-
liarity, that they are so strongly saturated by the

12 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

garlic they eat, that it penetrates not only their
skin, but even their clothing, so that when the
wind blows from them to the passenger in their
boat, he scents not "the sweet south wind
breathing o'er beds of violet," but the breath of
Boreas blustering over the garlic fields, and
redolent of that most potent perfume. Yet they
are a good-tempered, hard-working, quick-witted
race, even when uneducated ; and the higher
classes, who are chiefly descended from Sicilian
nobles, and still bear their titles, possess the
pride of race in a high degree ; and among them
may be found ladies and gentlemen of the
highest refinement and culture, fitted to shine
in any society. But they are jealously exclusive,
and reciprocate the disrespect shown them by
the English officers, by not mingling with them
and their families more than they can possibly
avoid.

At a ball given by one of these, descended from
the old noblesse, out of several hundred guests,
there were not more than a dozen English
present or invited.

On this occasion the national dance of Malta,
which is performed in the old peasant costume,
to an old national air, was danced by some very
handsome young girls and their partners ; and
the music, which was wild and strange, seemed
to fit in to every movement. It resembled more

AMATEUR THEATRICALS. 13

an English country dance than a Scotch reel,
and was danced with great spirit.

But to resume our voyage.

Over these smooth seas we glided, the throb
of the great heart of the engine pulsing audibly
our progress, during the silent watches of the
day and night, until on the fourth morning after
leaving Malta, at sunrise we sighted the light-
house of Port Sai'd, on the low flat shore which
there meets the Mediterranean. The night
before we had an amateur theatrical perform-
ance, in which two well-known professional
artistes, Minnie Walton (an exceedingly pretty
and jolly woman and charming actress) and
young Sothern, who inherits much of his father's
talent, kindly participated -- quite a brilliant
success ; collecting a considerable sum for the
benefit of a charity fund, to which the proceeds
were appropriated.

We parted with the ship and passengers, after
our two weeks' experience of both, with reluc-
tance ; for it has seldom been my lot, in the
course of wanderings more varied and wide,
though not so much confined to one sea as
those of the much bedevilled Ulysses, to have
passed on board ship a more agreeable fort-
night. But as we were not bound to China or
India, and the captain declined the responsi-
bility of dumping us down at Ismailia as his

14 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

boat passed by, we saw no use in going through
to Suez ; so we gathered our luggage together,
descended the ship's side, and embarked our-
selves and what the Eomans properly termed
impedimenta^ on the small boat which was to take
us to the shore, where an expectant crowd, in
baggy breeches, and no clothing worth mention-
ing, with very brown and exceedingly dirty faces
and persons, seemed waiting to welcome — and,
alas ! to plunder us.

But a half-score of years ago, when the Suez
Canal was as yet an uncertainty — in posse not in
esse — where now stands a thriving and growing
town were but a few scattered buildings for the
use of the workmen and machinery of the Canal
Company. But five years earlier, the site now
occupied by piles of public and private buildings,
surrounded by blooming gardens filled, even at
this wintry season of the year, with green trees
and tropical flowers in full bloom, was but a
barren sandy waste, whose rugged coast offered
no available harbour. But with the opening of
the canal, " as though by stroke of an enchanter's
wand," the desert was made to blossom as the
rose, the groaning sea recoiled, a safe harbour was
created, in which great ships might safely ride,
and the twin towns of Port Said and Ismailia
(the one at the Mediterranean mouth, the other
at the central point of the new water-way)

POET SAID— ITS BIRTH AND BAPTISM. 15

sprang into sudden and lusty life, and have
been growing into manhood, with a rapidity
truly marvellous to contemplate in so old and
slow a country as that in which they were
incubated out of the desert sands.

Although M. de Lesseps obtained the concession
for the canal in the year 1854, shortly after the
accession of Said Pacha, supported only by
the Dutch and American consuls-generals in his
application- — even the French consul-general,
like the English, then ridiculing and opposing
the project in consequence of the opposition to
it from England and Constantinople — it was
fully five years before he got a fair start, and
the birth of Port Said may really be dated from
1859. It was a very rickety child long after, and
it was only in 1869, with the opening of the
canal, that its real growth began. Since that
time its march has been onward.

We landed at the wharf of Port Said among
a motley crowd of native porters, all shriek-
ing, yelling, and jostling each other in true
Egyptian fashion, in desperate efforts to get
possession of our luggage. Everybody got per-
sistently in everybody else's way, and each
separate piece of luggage created a harmless
battle for its possession, similar to that so vividly
described by Homer, as having raged over the
body of Patroclus, it being fortunate, in both

16 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

cases, that the objects contended for were in-
animate. We were protected in our persons by
the inevitable Dragoman, who promptly took
possession of us, and resolutely refused to
abandon us, in spite of our protests, until we
left the place at midnight ; standing sentry out-
side of our door when we " sported our oak"
against him, when inside the hotel, and squab-
bling for more "backsheesh" when we last saw
him gesticulating wildly on the canal shore by
moonlight. Civilization immediately stared us
in the face on landing, in the shape of a Custom-
house ; and Orientalism in the backsheesh bribes
we had to pay the employes, for not examining
our various parcels and packages.

This ceremony over, escorted by a rabble rout
of porters and the friends of porters, each
striving to touch some part of the luggage
carried by the others, to establish a. claim for
payment, we proceeded to the Grand Hotel du
Louvre — a French hotel of rather a barracky
appearance, but whose table was really Parisian
and comforting to stomachs kept on the plain
British cuisine of the P. and 0. steamer for
the two preceding weeks. Here we remained
from 8 a.m. until midnight, and found the hotel
— with two exceptions — comfortable enough.
These exceptions were the villainous smells
that permeated and pervaded it throughout from

MEN AND MUSQITOES AT PORT SAID. 17

imperfect drainage, and the hungry hosts of
musquitoes which banqueted upon us without
a moment's cessation. These winged leeches
were small, black, and voiceless ; giving no
" dreadful note of preparation," as is usual with
their bolder brethren elsewhere, but settling
down in silence on face or hands, and giving the
first indication of their visit by the presentation
of their "little bills," until we were driven out
into the open air to escape them. We also
found human musquittfes, in the proprietors of
the hotel, who proved almost as bad bloodsuckers
as the winged ones, on presenting their "little
bills " also at parting. But keeping an hotel at
Port Said must really be no joke, and the few
outsiders who can be caught in transit ought
not to grumble at high charges under such ex-
ceptional circumstances ; and therefore let us
dismiss both men and musquitoes with a bene-
diction, and the expression of a hope that we
may never be subjected to the tender mercies of
either again, during our Eastward pilgrimage.

As there are but two daily departures, via the
canal, for Ismailia, forty miles distant, by small
steamers — one early in the morning, the other
at midnight — and we had missed the first, we
spent the day in strolling over the town, which is
decidedly French in aspect, and well and com-
pactly built. The foreign population also seems

18 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

chiefly French — people in some way connected
with the Isthmus works ; and the language also
in the shops was French, instead of Italian, as
is generally the case at Alexandria or Cairo.

Port Said is rather a pretty, though not over
clean place, with a large public garden in the
centre of the town, filled with rare Eastern
trees, shrubs, and flowers, all looking as fresh
and blooming as though the season were July,
not November. The heat of the sun also was
so oppressive that we had to resort to umbrellas
for protection. The town is remarkable as the
growth of so short a time, not only in its solid
blocks of buildings and blooming gardens, but
also for the magnitude and beauty of many of
the private residences, with their large verandahs
extending all around them, as in Havana — the
ceaseless clouds of tobacco smoke rising from
the mouths of the residents, completing the
resemblance to the " ever-faithful island."

Many of these planter-like residences are
occupied by the agents of the numerous steam-
ship lines, of all nationalities, trading with India
and China through the canal ; one of the effects
of that great artery's being opened having been
the destruction of the previous British monopoly
of the trade of the East. Now an eager and
active competition is carried on by other nation-
alities and by private companies, to the great

MIDNIGHT VOYAGE TO ISMAlLIA. 19

diminution of value of the P. and 0. stock,
which used to command very high premiums
when that pioneer line enjoyed the monopoly of
the overland transit through Egypt.

Viewing these snug residences, and reflecting
that, for at least a portion of the year, the lives
of the foreign residents must pass in almost as
unbroken apathy and repose as those of Tenny-
son's " lotos-eaters, " it occurred to us that the
noiseless though persistent musquito of Port
Said may have been provided by Providence, to
prevent the blood from stagnating in so torpid a
place ; acting as a substitute for the immemorial
" barber-leech " of Italy and Spain. We were
surprised to find such numerous and excellent
shops at Port Said, and the extreme youth of
the place insured the freshness of the supplies.
The streets are broad and well laid out ; and
although walking on the pavements, or the ledge
representing them, is not unaccompanied by
the drawbacks of sleeping dogs and much un-
rernoved rubbish, common to all Eastern towns,
yet, on the whole, a lady wearing short skirts
can contrive to pass over them in comparative
safety.

At midnight we left the hotel for the small
Egyptian mail steamer, which was to take us
through the canal to Ismailia. We were not
kept waiting much over an hour beyond the

20 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

appointed time at the office, and again were
confronted with civilization, in the shape of
weighing luggage, and heavy charges for alleged
extra weight in addition to our regular fare,
almost doubling the tariff price. Orientalism
also took leave of us in a chorus of lamentations,
sounding strangely like curses, from Dragoman
and porters, already heavily overpaid for real or
imaginary services forced upon us : as the small
steamer splashed away towards the canal, under
a moonlight almost as bright as daylight.

The steamer looked like a toy boat, reminding
us, both from its size, and its wheel at the stern
instead of the sides of the vessel, of the small
boats that ply up and down the bayous in Loui-
siana. A very diminutive cabin forward, with
no berths, but simply divans, sufficient to accom-
modate six persons stretched out at full length,
constituted the first-class accommodation. For-
tunately there were in all but four first-class
passengers, so we were comfortable enough. As
we were favoured by bright moonlight — so bright
that one could easily read by it — I spent the
larger portion of my time on the small outside
deck, looking out upon the strange scene, and
the narrow canal through which we were almost
noiselessly paddling at the rate of about eight
miles per hour. The great sea walls outside,
built out into the sea several miles, to resist the

PASSAGE THROUGH THE SUEZ CANAL. 21

encroachments of the Mediterranean, as well as
the opening or mouth of the canal itself, are
well worth seeing and examining more closely
than our time allowed us ; for they are proofs of
the wonderful ingenuity and skill of engineering
science in resisting the wars of winds and waves
against its artificial bulwarks,.

But the greater part of the transit to Ismailia
from Port Said, when the first novelty is over,
is monotonous in the extreme — almost a run
through a large ditch, which, however, is far
wider than one would have imagined from
merely reading a description of it ; since it looks
wide enough to permit several steamers of large
size to pass at the same time. Part of the canal
is simply a trench cut through the desert, which
is gritty, not sandy, and the deepening of the
channel through salt lakes already existing, but
too shallow for navigation. The rest consists of
heavy cuttings through hills, whose rugged out-
lines on either side break the dead level and
uniform monotony of the banks. Approaching
and leaving Kantara — a station where a short
stoppage is made — the latter is the case.

Yet the scene is unique and utterly unlike any
other; the southern bayous, whose water-way
resembles the canal, being fringed with great
trees draped in moss, waving from them like
banners in some old cathedral, and lined besides

22 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

by dense underbrush. Here the dead silence
and solitude, the grey wastes around unrelieved
by tree, bush, or shrub, looking still more ghostly
under moonlight, with only the plashing of the
little steamer to recall the sounds of life, made
it a solemn and weird spectacle, though a
monotonous one, during the six hours of our
transit.

CHAPTEE II,

ISMAILIA— THE DESERT— CAIRO..

Reach Ismai'lia at sunrise — First view. — The Custom-house nuisance
again — The faith in things unseen — The Hotel: Paris — A truly
Parisian cuisine — Stroll over the town — Its public and private
gardens — Peculiar charms of, this oasis in the desert — The railway
route, via Zagazig, to Cairo — Along the Fresh- Water Canal — >
Should the Chinese coolie be imported ?— The Suez Canal and
Euphrates Kail way route — Some facts and figures about, the Suez
Canal — Mention of one of, its founders.

WE reached Ismailia about sunrise,, and. passing
ashore with our luggage, found ourselves under
a leafy bower of shade trees, forming an avenue
of acacias and wild figs which,, although yet
youthful, had attained already sufficient pro-
portions to do honour to the Champs Elysees ;
although they,, as well as the little city which
we saw at the end of the leafy vista, half a mile
distant, occupied the space which was sandy
desert a few years before. For nature here is
indeed a bounteous mother, wherever water is
brought to the soil ; no other fertilizer seeming
to be needed in this country of contradictions.

24 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Here, again, we were most unexpectedly
arrested by the Custom-house nuisance, to
which we had already been subjected at Port
Said but twenty-four hours before. Why or
wherefore the superior powers alone can tell;
but the wayfaring man, though not a fool,
may not. Argument and expostulation were in
vain, and more francs had to be offered up on
the shrine of Backsheesh the Insatiable, whose
worship has succeeded that of Isis and Osiris in
the land of the Pharaohs, before we were per-
mitted to pass the imaginary barrier, where
there is a gate barring the road, and an exces-
sively dirty and stolid Egyptian acting as toll-
gatherer. On we marched, with unopened
trunks borne on the shoulders of several Arabs,
towards Ismailia and breakfast; and wearied
with our night journey, hailed the sight of the
Hotel Paris, which had been highly recom-
mended to us, and richly merited the recommen-
dation.

Ismailia (so named in compliment to the
Khedive) is a far prettier, though much smaller,
town than Port Said, which the completion and
successful working of the Fresh- Water Canal,
that connects it directly with Cairo, and
promises to act as a great feeder of produce to
the Suez Canal by diverting the transportation
thither, bids fair to expand into much larger

A GARDEN-CITY. 25

proportions, and make the centre of a brisk
trade in native produce. Even now it is an
attractive and pretty place — a wonderfully pre-
cocious child of eight years of age — with its
public garden in the centre of the city, blooming
even in mid- winter with rare exotics and ever-
greens, and with a large fountain of fresh water
furnishing the inhabitants with a full supply
of that luxury. Its Khedivial palace, and the
pretty chalets of M. de Lesseps and others, em-
bowered in gardens filled with flowers and fruits,
and its snug little shops filled with Parisian
knicknacks, give it the air of one of the small
towns in the environs of Paris bodily trans-
ported into the desert — an impression which the
prevalence of the French tongue, even on Arab
lips, tends also to enhance. Here the " Father
of the Isthmus," as he loves to be called —
M. de Lesseps, that well known " Veillard qui
ne se v'eillit pas " (as his French friends say) — •
holds his court for three months every year, and
dispenses hospitality on the most lavish scale ;
and at the patriarchal age of seventy-three,
exceeding the Scriptural term, with his young
wife and houseful of young children, seems to
bloom like a century plant.

Ismailia, as already stated, enjoys the excep-
tional privilege of an excellent hotel, the Hotel
Paris, kept by an old French resident, who

26 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

boasts the same name as the gay capital of
France, and who proves himself entitled to that
highest eulogium of " knowing how to keep an
hotel." So well is this appreciated in Egypt,
that many of the visitors to, and residents at,
Cairo are in the habit of running up to Ismailia
to enjoy the cuisine and the climate, both of
which, except at midsummer, are exceptionally
good. Our experience of the place was limited
but to a few hours, but a better breakfast, on
short notice, could not have been served at
Paris — delicious fish fresh from the lake being
one of the most attractive features, served up
with a sauce justifying the French gourmet's
eulogy : " Monsieur, with this sauce one might
eat his father! "

Ismailia is famous for its fish, with which the
Cairene market is supplied; and its fruits and
flowers also are almost unrivalled.

The town itself is European in appearance,
reminding one of Auteuil or Passy, with a dash
of the East thrown in by the semi-tropical
vegetation. The shops are chiefly kept by
French men or women, who constitute the bulk
of the population, although of course the
evidences of Egyptian residence are not wanting.
The climate in winter is said to be very equable
and agreeable, though I should suppose that
the vicinity of large bodies of water would

DESCRIPTION OF ZAGAZIG. 27

render it somewhat damp. This, however, the
residents will not admit, and my own experience
was too limited to contradict their positive and
patriotic vindication of their climate. Certain
it is that Ismailia is a very pretty place, and for
those who love peace and quiet, and can dis-
pense with society, might prove an attractive
residence during the winter months; although
few Oriental features present themselves there
beyond the gardens and the climate. Its proxi-
mity to Cairo also tends to render it accessible
to civilization and society.

We spent only a few hours at Ismailia, and
then took the railway, via Zagazig, to Cairo — a
most dusty and fatiguing journey of about seven
hours, rendered apparently longer by the fre-
quent and almost interminable stoppages at the
small railway stations, or rather sheds, every
half-hour. Zagazig, at which we stopped en
route, is really a pretty place, and apparently a
prosperous one, with its well-built houses, and
storehouses for produce, and its mosques and
minarets of much pretension, to meet the
spiritual wants of its population, which is chiefly
Egyptian. Out of 40,000 inhabitants of which it
boasts, not more than 300 can even put in a claim
to foreign European origin. It is the chief city
of the province of Charkye, which numbers
nearly half a million of inhabitants. Among

28 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

other large cities in the Delta are — Daman-
hour, with 25,000 inhabitants ; Mansourah, with
16,000 ; Tanta (where the great fairs are held),
with 60,000 ; Eosetta at the Nile-mouth 15,000,
and Damietta 29,000 ; so that there are cities to
be seen outside of Cairo and Alexandria, though
seldom visited by tourists.

For more than half the way after leaving Is-
mailia, the transit is through the desert — the most
bare, bleak, and dreary scene the eye of man can
rest upon; the very " abomination of desolation"
spoken of in Scripture ; unrelieved for miles by
the slightest trace of man's presence or occupa-
tion, deserted even by birds and beasts, — an arid,
shrubless waste of ever-shifting sand. Yet ex-
perience has proved that even this desert waste
can be made " to blossom as the rose," simply
by the use of water, without other fertilizers ;
and one of the great uses of the Fresh- Water
Canal will arise from the irrigation it will supply,
and the belt of fertility it will create, along the
whole line of its course. The blooming gardens
of Port Said and Ismailia, so lately redeemed
from the desert by similar agency, would seem
to afford ample confirmation to this claim ; espe-
cially since the canal has passed into the hands
of the Suez Canal Company, at least for a time,
that corporation having obtained the control of
it from the Khedive. The opening of this new

THE FRESH-WATER CANAL. 29

water-way has already been celebrated with
much pomp at Ismailia in April, 1877 ; and the
Khedive has promised formally to inaugurate it
in the autumn.

Statements have been made, in English and
foreign journals, that the Fresh- Water Canal
from Ismailia had been purchased from the
Egyptian Government by the Suez Canal Com-
pany ; but this is a mistake. Like most of the
great public works of Egypt at this moment, it
has only been hypothecated to creditors, as are
the railways and the harbours and docks.

A debt of 2,500,000 francs being due to M.
Paponot, the contractor, and to the Suez Canal
Company, for advances made to the Khedive, it
has been agreed that a commissioner shall be
appointed by the Canal Company to take over
a portion of the tolls collected from the New
Fresh- Water Canal, until the liquidation of this
debt ; though the Suez Company will have no
power to control the management, but merely to
collect a portion of the money accruing there-
from, as it is paid into the treasury.

The receipts of the new canal are estimated
at about 1,000,000 francs per annum, which
would clear off the company's loan in three
years and a half. But, of course, this calcu-
lation is based on the popularity of the new
canal as a means of transit for the produce of

30 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the interior, hitherto conveyed by other routes.
As to its profits from irrigation, they probably
will not be immediate nor great, for reasons
already stated ; and, in reality, with the diminish-
ing force of labourers, which the war will neces-
sarily cause, both by the drafts from Con-
stantinople, and the necessity of keeping up an
army in Egypt to guard the canal and meet
other possible contingencies, some time must
elapse before more land will be needed for culti-
vation in Egypt >

What is needed to effect the redemption of
thousands of acres more of the waste lands of
Egypt, in addition to canals for irrigation, is
labour, and the judicious employment of it ;
instead of the slovenly and wasteful system that
now prevails.

Egypt is sparsely populated, even for its area
of already cultivable land ; and of its five and
a half millions of inhabitants, probably one-
third of its adult male population reside in
the larger cities and towns, and are not
agricultural labourers or cultivators. Cairo
swallows up half a million, Alexandria a quar-
ter of a million, living by petty trades or indus-
trial pursuits other than agricultural. The
large towns of the Delta, which have increased
, enormously in size and population under the
present reign, swallow up many thousands

EGYPT'S GEEATEST WANT. 31

more. A rigorous system of conscription also
drafts largely from the rural population its
young and able-bodied portion, the very bone
and sinew of the country, to perish by disease or
battle in Turkey or Abyssinia, or become un-
productive consumers at home. The standing
strength of the Egyptian army has been esti-
mated at from 60,000 to 70,000 men, although
recently the Khedive has reduced the cadres
largely, and wisely sent back his warriors into
that field where pruning-hooks take the place of
swords. The new acquisitions in Soudan and
Central Africa have called for, and must still de-
mand, large expeditionary corps, many — perhaps
most — of whom are destined never to return ;
falling victims either to the pestilential climate
(almost as fatal to the Egyptian as to the
European), or to the ferocity of the savage
warriors of interior Africa, a race seemingly as
untamable as the Comanche Indians. How to
supply this pressing want, underlying the pro-
gress and prosperity of Egypt, is one of the
many problems now vexing the active and
restless brain of the Khedive, who has inherited
much of the energy, as well as the throne of
his grandfather, Mehemet Ali — the Napoleon of
the East — founder of a line which bids fair to
outlive that of the Sultan's.
By his equatorial annexations (now welded

32 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

together under the rule of the adventurous
and indefatigable Gordon Pacha (to whom ab-
solute governorship for life has recently been
given), the Khedive has thus far gained a large
increase of territory and of population nomi-
nally, but no material advantage, nor addition
to his labouring population. For it is more
than doubtful, if the barbarians of Central Africa
even were colonized in Egypt, that they could
be made to work in the fields as regular labourers.
Their native indolence, as well as their savage
training, would render the result of such an
experiment (even if attempted on a large scale)
more than problematical. The tiger cannot be «
made to plough in the same furrow as the ox ; ,
and the savage Central African nomad, com-
pared with the peaceful, drudging Egyptian
fellah — a serf and born thrall for centuries — is as
the tiger to the ox. In this strait the attention
of the Khedive has been directed, by thoughtful
Europeans in Egypt, towards the teeming and
industrious millions of China ; and a scheme for
the introduction of coolies into Egypt has been
proposed to and considered by the Khedive
himself, who has inclined a serious ear to the
proposition, but has interposed doubts as to the
feasibility or propriety of the scheme proposed,
suggesting a plan of his own for the purpose.
He has responded that the idea was not a bad

INTRODUCTION OF " THE HEATHEN CHINEE." 33

one, but the experiment of introducing the
coolies at his own risk and expense might prove
a costly one to him, should it result in failure ;
and that it might prove highly difficult to enforce
contracts with them, after they were in the
country. " But," he added, "if they will come
of their own accord, and at their own expense,
entailing no charge, present or prospective, upon
my government, they shall he warmly welcomed ;
be given employment, or, should they prefer it,
be allowed to occupy and reclaim vacant or wild
lands, which shall be free from taxation for a
term of years."

The initiatory steps have thus been taken, the
seeds have been sown, and it is more than pro-
bable that a short time only will elapse before
the " heathen Chinee " will show his yellow face
in Egypt, and add one more to the many types
of race already there. For there are many
reasons why the Chinaman should feel himself
more at home in Egypt than in California, or in
other Western lands into which his cupidity has
led him. In the first place, soil, climate, and
productions, as well as modes of cultivation in
Egypt, assimilate more closely to those of the
land of his birth, than those in the Western
Hemisphere. In the second place, the prejudice
of colour, caste, and race, as well as of religion,
will not weigh so heavily upon him among

34 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the Moslems, as among the " pale-faces " and
Christians, whose " charity" does not cover his
"multitude of sins" (real or supposed), in the
West. Put him down among the rice fields of
Eosetta or Damietta, or on the sugar plantations
at Minieh, among the copper-coloured labourers
there assembled, and but for the difference of
language and dress he might fancy himself at
home. There is really no such sharp dividing
line of character, custom and race between the
Coolie and the Fellah — no such insuperable bar-
riers as those existing between the former and
the European ; and in the former case amalga-
mation, as well as association, would not seem
impossible, or even improbable. In short, view-
ing the matter in every aspect, the proposal to
introduce the Coolie into Egypt, to fill the labour
void, seems to offer the speediest as well as most
satisfactory solution of the problem.

This train of reflection was irresistibly induced
by what the new canal is expected to accomplish.
For what use will land be, however capable of
culture, without the hands to utilize it ? And
should the Mongol ants swarm into Egypt for this
purpose, how great a revolution in American as
well as Egyptian interests may they not effect ?
Since the Suez Canal ceased to be an en-
gineering question, by its successful completion
and working, it has passed into the other phase

WILL THE SUEZ CANAL PAY? 35

of a financial question. " Can it be made to
pay ? " is now the problem which thus far, owing
to the enormous subsidies extorted from succes-
sive viceroys (now for ever ended), has never
been fairly tested until recently.

We are very much in the dark as to many
points of the administration, and as to the actual
expenses of the concern; it having been very
much of a close corporation, under French con-
trol, until intermeddling "perfide Albion" insisted
on putting her finger into the pie, and assuming
a share in the direction of the enterprise, to
which she contributes about nine-tenths of the
support. My own brief examination of the canal
showed me how incessant must be the wash
upon the sides, and the filling up of the narrow
channel, through ordinary wear and tear. But
there are other and extraordinary influences
also at work on the canal, owing to its peculiar
situation and surroundings, as the following
statement clipped from the London papers of
May 1st will conclusively show : — " The Penin-
sular and Oriental Company's steamship Poonah,
with the India and China mails, which arrived
at Southampton yesterday, experienced, while
in the Suez Canal, a severe sand-storm, which
commenced at sunrise, and continued, more or
less furious, until five in the afternoon. During
the storm she laid right across the canal power-

36 THE KHEDIVE'S

less. Tons of sand were thrown on the deck,
and the masts and gear were covered with a
thick coating."

The effects of a series of such storms on the
canal must be obvious to every one, the peculiar
position and character of that work being taken
into consideration.

From a general statement of the affairs of the
canal, made to the shareholders at their general
meeting at Paris, towards the close of the year
1876, by M. Charles de Lesseps, son of "the
founder/' and vice-president of the company, we
derive some information as to its actual working.
He assumes only to give " an interesting forecast
of the probable financial results of the year's
working " (to quote the language of the journal
from which this statement is extracted), " as
follows " :-

" In 1875, he said a net profit of 1,061,000
francs (£42,440) had been earned, which was
sufficient for the payment of a dividend of
If. 88c. per share. It is expected, however,
that the free revenue of 1876 will amount to
1,500,000 or 1,600,000 francs (£60,000 to
£64,000), and this increase of about 50 per cent,
in the profits will admit of the payment of a
dividend of about 2f. 80c. per share, which,
added to the 25 francs of interest, gives a
revenue of about 28 francs per share. But the

CONDITION AM) PROSPECTS OF THE COMPANY. 37

company may be said to have made even greater
progress than is shown oy these figures. The
increase in the traffic receipts for 1876, as com-
pared with those for the previous year, amounted
to 1,100,000 francs (£44,000), while the working
expenses had actually diminished. On the
working of the canal, therefore, there had been
an increased profit not of 50, but of fully 100
per cent. ; but, owing to the commercial de-
pression in Egypt, the company had not been
able to dispose of its lands so readily as in
former years, nor to invest its money on such
advantageous terms. M. C. de Lesseps, how-
ever, hopes that as the commercial situation
improves these two last sources of income;will
become more prolific, and that, if peace be
secured, an immediate and important increase of
traffic may be expected. That increase, too, he,
believes, will not necessitate any augmentation
in the working charges."

This statement, it must be borne in mind,
does not come from M. Ferdinand de Lesseps,
the head of the company, but from his son,
lately promoted to the post of vice-president,
and therefore cannofc be regarded as a formal
official expose of the actual condition and pros-
pects of the company, which has recently been
strengthened, or weakened, by £4,000,000 of
British gold, and the appointment of two English

38 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

members of the Board. To practical people, this
" interesting forecast " will not be as satisfactory
as it seems to have proved to the able editor
who reports it ; the facts and figures not being
so roseate of hue, as the hopes and beliefs of
Lesseps the younger, based partly on political
and partly on speculative assumptions, which
may, or may not, prove fallacious. The jarrings
and jealousies which have recently manifested
themselves between the old French and new
English stockholders have not tended to con-
stitute "a happy family " out of the directory;
nor has Mr. Disraeli's grand coup increased its
harmony. The Lion, not the Eagle, now guards
the entrance to, and protects the passage
through the canal, which, but for Napoleon III.
(who wrung the millions, of indemnity out of the
recalcitrating viceroy), would never have been
completed. Never was the irony of fate more
curiously exhibited than in the history of this
enterprise which, planned and perfected by
French pertinacity and French francs, eked out
by Egyptian indemnities and contributions, has
finally resulted in the almost exclusive use and
benefit of England, so long its contemptuous
critic and opponent.

That which one of the greatest English
ministers, with the greatest English engineer at
his back, contemptuously pooh-poohed in Par-

THE COST OF THE CANAL. 39

liament, with all England applauding him, an
equally audacious successor in the premiership,
encouraged by equally loud popular acclamation,
has recently disbursed millions upon ; and a
young prince of the blood royal has been sent in
his ship, to keep watch and ward over its Medi-
terranean mouth, against all comers. For the
canal now is more English than French; and
probably the most bitter reflection that passes
through the mind of the representative French-
man who, in conjunction with two other French-
men (the engineers Linant and Mougel Beys,
who supplied the engineering skill in which the
ancient diplomat was deficient), planned and
perfected the canal, must be the knowledge of
this fact ; as well as the painful conviction that
although, during the term of his natural life, he
will still be the figure-head of the company,
his destined successor must inevitably be an
Englishman — from the preponderating interest of
that nationality in the work, whether in peace or
in war.

The cost of the canal from first to last
seems to have amounted to £19,000,000, about
£6,000,000 of which had to be paid to the
company for concessions made by the Khedive,
which he had to withdraw and pay for in this
very liberal manner. These concessions con-
sisted of large bodies of desert lands ; but the

40 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

company still retains large tracts around its
chief centres of traffic, Port Said and Ismailia.
It has been proved that this landed property
may be made cultivable by the use of water, and
must therefore materially advance in value.*

In one respect all the visions of its projector
have not been fulfilled. He was so sanguine of
the substitution of steamers for sailing vessels in
the trade with the East, that he laughingly said
one day that he believed, after a short time, a
sailing ship would become as great a rarity for
general traffic by water as a stage-coach for
land travel ; nor has his other idea that sailing
vessels would be towed through the canal been
more correct. Steam has merely superseded
sails in the Bed Sea traffic, and there are still
sailirig vessels.

Hereafter, when the gratitude or the means of
the company shall prompt them to raise some
memorial to the founders of the canal, alongside
of that which will commemorate the name and
fame of Ferdinand de Lesseps — already so world-
wide in this connection — should be placed
another of equal magnitude, to commemorate the
services of S. S. Ruyssennaers, consul-general of
Holland, and first vice-president of the company,
whose shrinking modesty has hitherto veiled
from the public eye his claims to an almost

* See Appendix A for other particulars as to cost of canal.

A TEIBUTE TO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS. 41

equal paternity of the great enterprise, which
without him might, and probably would, never
have proved a success.

I speak of what I know, and of what many
others in Egypt also know, when I assert that
from the earliest inception of this enterprise,
before and after the concession was obtained (in
which he took a leading part), as well as in his
constant mediation and management in all its
stages, wherein his tact, temper, and influence
with two successive viceroys had to be often and
strongly exerted to save the scheme from utter
ruin, the final success of the enterprise is as
much due to him, as to the indomitable pluck
and energy of his better known and more for-
tunate co-labourer, to whom the public has
accorded all the glory.

I mention this fact with no wish to tear
one leaf from the well-earned chaplet of M. de
Lesseps, one of whose earliest friends and sup-
porters (when his friends were few) I claim to
have been, in act as well as profession. But
surely there is glory enough in so great a success
to bear division ? and in what I have alleged the
testimony of many old Egyptians will bear me
out — as well as the records of the company
itself. So sensible was the Khedive himself of
this obligation, that in the photograph he caused
to be prepared for presentation to the crowned

42 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

heads of Europe, in commemoration of the inau-
guration of the canal, unsolicited by any one, he
assigned one of the most conspicuous places,
next himself in that picture, to the photographic
likeness of M. Buyssennaers, in recognition of
his great services in regard to the work; and
Christendom and the company surely cannot
afford to be less grateful than the Khedive, when
the hour comes for their public recognition also.

Suez has also profited by the canal, although
not so much as her younger sisters on the
Isthmus. Before the Suez Canal was a success,
Suez h.ad a certain impulse given to it by the
transit, and its connection with the P. and 0.
line of steamers, then and for a long time the
monopolists for the Indian voyage ; after the
enterprise and energy of Waghorn had demon-
strated the superiority of the overland transit to
the tedious passage round the Cape.

In those early days Suez was a crumbling old
Arab town, with a sparse population of natives,
and not a dozen European residents ; possessing,
it is true, a large rambling hotel, built by the
P. and 0. Company, which gave the returning
Indian traveller a foretaste of European enter-
tainment again. But there was a general air of
desolation and decay about the place, which was
rather disheartening.

With the new influx however, through the

SUEZ AND THE EUPHRATES VALLEY RAILROAD. 43

canal, a revival has taken place, although, it is sad
to record the fact that two-thirds of the resident
foreigners are men; the gentler sex apparently
shunning Suez, or being dispensed with hy the
ungallant males who have congregated there,
and made it a kind of Eastern bachelors' hall.
The population now comprises about 2500
foreigners, and about 11,000 Arabs, in all 13,500;
the floating population is impossible to esti-
mate. The vicinity to the Eed Sea, and the
connection of several sites in the vicinity with
Scriptural story — notably the supposed point
where Pharaoh and his host attempted, and the
Israelites successfully accomplished, the passage
of the Eed Sea, the well of Moses (Ain el
Moussa), and other traditional places — give Suez
the only interest it can boast of to the tourist.

The Euphrates Valley Railway road to India,
which once shared public interest with the Suez
Canal, for which it was proposed as a sub-
stitute, seems to have lost the favour it once
enjoyed. Five years since, the British House of
Commons appointed an able committee to inves-
tigate the subject, and obtain the opinions of the
most eminent public men, whose experience had
qualified them to form a correct judgment as to
the necessity and practicability of that route.
Among these were Lord Sandhurst and Lord
Strathnairn, both formerly commanders-in-chief

44 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

in India, and Sir Henry Kawlinson, than whom
there could be no better authority. The com-
mittee also examined many other distinguished
persons, whose experience or researches gave
weight to their utterances.

The result of this inquiry was, that the com-
mittee came to the conclusion that the first cost
of construction would be £10,000,000. Politi-
cally and strategically, there was an agreement of
opinion that such an alternative line, in case
of war, would be useful. The military witnesses
differed widely in opinion as to the value of such
a line as a means of sending troops to India.
Lord Sandhurst expressed his preference for sea
transportation. Several others doubted the ex-
pediency of sending troops over a line passing
over 900 miles, from Scanderoon to the Persian
Gulf, through a foreign country, liable to be
disturbed by European complications and local
disturbances. " The Indian Government, in a
despatch to which are subscribed the names of
Lord Mayo, Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir John
Strachey, and Sir Eichard Temple, ' earnestly
desired that it might be found practicable to
carry out the project, which would be of con-
siderable, but not paramount importance to
India,' and were ' decidedly averse to any
promise of pecuniary assistance being made.'
It was added : ' We cannot consider the project

THE CANAL CONCESSIONS. 45

of such vital and paramount importance to the
interests of India as would justify us in placing a
charge upon the resources of the Empire for its
construction or maintenance/ JJ

Since the report of this committee, the mono-
poly of the Suez Canal route, as the best short
route, seems to have been firmly established;
and British diplomacy has therefore been
seriously occupied with it, to the exclusion of all
others.

The war has raised some important questions
relative to the Suez Canal, and there has been
much talk of " neutralization/' in its broadest
sense ; but the expression of British opinion on
this matter, through Lord Derby's utterances in
Parliament, has shown, that the nation which
has made the canal its highway to India, and
supplies three-fourths of the tonnage passing
through it, will never consent to this ; because it
would bar the passage of its own war vessels and
troops, in certain contingencies.

The transit through the canal is governed by
the concession of January, 1856, which regulates
the relations of the Canal Company with Egypt
and Turkey, the proprietors of the domain, of
which the following is the text : —

" AKT. XIV. — We (Khedive) declare solemnly,
for ourselves and our successors, the Great
Maritime Canal from Suez to Pelusium, and its

46 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

dependent posts, open for ever as neutral ways,
to every commercial vessel, proceeding from one
sea to the other, without distinction, preference,
or exclusion, either of persons or nationalities,
subject to payment of dues," etc. etc.

But this privilege, it will be seen, covers only
commercial vessels, not those of war; and the
Porte and Khedive have so construed it, by
giving notice that Russian war vessels shall
not be allowed to pass. The war vessels of
friendly Powers, on making requisition, have
never been denied the privilege, although there
is nothing in the concession to give them a
right to do so. In the Abyssinian war England
made effective use of the canal. The canal is
still included in Egyptian territory — the right of
" eminent domain" never having been conceded
to the company — and has been leased to that
company for ninety-nine years, at the expiration
of which term the Egyptian Government may
enter into full possession, on paying to the
company the value of the plant and material.*

Unless the financial condition of Egypt should
greatly improve in the interval, the property is
not very apt to change hands and revert to
Egypt, at the expiration of that term.

* See Appendix

CHAPTER III.

OLD AND NEW CAIRO.

Approach to Cairo — Sights and scenes en route — "Wayside views and
voices — " Backsheesh, Howadji ! " the same old tune — Nature and
man unchanged — Startling changes in the environs of Cairo — Dis-
appearance of walls and appearance of new boulevards, a la
Haussmann — Surprises in store for the returning pilgrim after ten
years' absence — What cannot now be seen from Shepheard's balcony
— Cairo as it was and as it is — The old quarter and the new.

WE approached Cairo about sunset, hot, tired,
and dusty after our ride through the desert, the
fine sand of which, blown by a strong steady
wind, drifted in through the crevices of the
closed windows, and powdered our persons and
dresses with a perfect coating of impalpable
dust. After reaching the cultivated region
we were freed from this annoyance, and the
latter half of our journey was very agreeable.
The general appearance of this cultivated
country, and the sights and sounds that greet
you at each successive railway station, are much
the same as of yore, and familiar to all old

48 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Egyptian tourists. These seem stereotyped, and
you still see the same flat garden-like country,
with its eternal carpet of verdure of different
shades in patches, presenting the appearance
of a vast farm from the absence of trees. You
pass numerous Arab villages, with their clusters
of mud-huts, swarming with chickens and
children, crowned by the domes and minarets
of the small mosques, which give a pictorial
aspect to their squalor. You see long lines of
laden camels swinging, and hideous water-oxen
plodding by, and the inevitable old Arab in the
single blue shirt jogging by on the donkey, so
small that the man's legs with difficulty avoid
touching the ground. At each station, looking
out of the window of your carriage, you en-
counter the usual salutations from the small and
exceedingly dirty orange and water vendors, all
children; and dirty hands of professional or
amateur beggars are thrust in the window, with
hoarse, guttural prayers for " backshepsh ! " the
owners of all of which voices seem clad in the
same old blue rags they wore years before. An
adjunct to this scene is usually a group of
soldiers, either just enlisted or just discharged,
who are squatting on their hams, chewing sugar-
cane or smoking — always waiting for something
or somebody, and distinguishable from the sur-
rounding crowd only by being cleaner and better

SIGHTS AJSTD SCENES BY THE WAYSIDE. 49

dressed. They are the mildest mannered
soldiers in the world.

It is unlucky for the traveller, and for the
population, that during his transit hy rail he
comes in contact with the idlest and least
attractive portion of the natives, who hang
around the stations to pick up a few paras or
piastres. Taking these as fair specimens, his
estimate of the population would be low indeed.

But it is on approaching the Cairo station
that the great improvement of that city and its
suhurhs, becomes perceptible to the visitor who
has been absent for several years. He rubs his
eyes, and almost distrusts his vision ; for, looking
up the Shoubra road which leads into Cairo, as
well as outside the former limits of the city,
where formerly stretched for miles fields under
cultivation, he now sees, far as his eyes can
reach, in every direction well-built and even
palatial residences, surrounded by gardens,
adding on new cities, for several miles. The old
Cairo was formerly surrounded by high and mas-
sive walls, and entered by a wide gate, both of
which have disappeared, while broad boulevards
open an easy way into the city and out to the
desert. Passing over where wall and gate used
to stand, new surprises await the returning
visitor. The old has given place to the new ;
and blocks of high buildings have replaced the

50 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

picturesque old tumble-down erections of mud
and wood, four stories high, with jealously
latticed windows jutting out into the street.

But when you descend at Shepheard's Hotel,
your astonishment reaches its climax, and you
rub your eyes as hard as Rip Van Winkle ; for
the great characteristic feature of the Cairo of
old, the Ezbekieh — the pride, the glory of the
city and people — has utterly vanished ! Where
once waved the branches of the stately syca-
mores planted by Mehemet Ali, are now to be
seen only solid blocks of stone houses, with
arcades in imitation of those of the Rue de Rivoli
at Paris. Over three-fourths of the space
formerly occupied by that primitive garden-
wilderness, so dear to the memory of its old
habitues, who used to sit every evening and
night under its grand trees, sipping coffee and
smoking nargilehs, on those Cairene nights
brighter than western days, while an endless
procession of natives and Levantines passed
under its leafy arcades, are imitation European
houses and shops. The garden has vanished like
a dream. The same change has swept over the
aspect of all four sides of the square which sur-
rounded that great park, or garden, whose dis-
appearance I have lamented. The quaint old
Eastern buildings, with their latticed windows,
and entrances beneath by a small door pierced

THE OLD AND THE NEW GARDENS. 51

in a thick wall, through which you passed into
an inner open court in which was tethered a
donkey, passing up a flight of break-neck, narrow
winding stone steps to enter the house — all
these, too, have followed the Ezbekieh, and their
fronts at least are now on European models :
square, formal, uniform, hideous-looking imita-
tions of the ugliest architecture in the world,
replacing the most picturesque, if not the most
comfortable or convenient. A small portion of
the old Ezbekieh has been saved from the
building mania, but so " translated" that its
oldest friend scarce recognizes it as an acquaint-
ance ; for, originally the least wooded and most
unattractive portion of the old open space, it
has been converted into a French or German
tea-garden, under the auspices of a French orna-
mental gardener, partly on the trim Versailles
model, partly in imitation of the Bois de
Boulogne, with even its little artificial lake with
swans in it, and small mock-steamers for sailing
over three feet of water.

The garden, however, which boasts of about
forty acres, enclosed in a high railing, is a very
pretty one, and in hot weather aifords a most
pleasant retreat from the dust and glare of the
outside world. It has rock grottoes, and restau-
rants, and also an open-air theatre ; and every
afternoon one of the military bands " discourses

52 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

most excellent music " for public benefit. But
the foreign population is too lazy or too busy to
come every evening ; and the band, punctiliously
performing daily, wastes its sweetness generally
on the heedless ears of a few nurses and children,
reinforced by an occasional traveller. On Sun-
days and religious festivals, however, there is a
crowd ; and a very motley crowd it is, composed
of all the numerous races that go to make up
the nationality we designate the Levantine.

The natives — especially the lower class — have
abandoned the spot, squatting, smoking, and
story-telling elsewhere, in more shady and less
formal precincts. To find them at home, you
must now either go into the country, or burrow
down into those portions of the city, which the
march of improvement and the Khedive have
not yet reached.

Passing through this garden, and under the
long colonnades of the new buildings that hem
it in, you emerge on the old Mooskie — as the
quarter of European shops is called — and here
you recognize an old acquaintance, but little
smarter or more European than formerly. The
fine new shops (many of them worthy of Paris
or London) are in the Ezbekieh quarter, newly
built; while here the small Levantine traders
and shopkeepers still vend their miscellaneous
wares in unchanged dirt and squalor, in the

THE OLD EZBEKIEH AS IT USED TO BE. 53

midst of crowds of natives, waddling along on
foot, or mounted on donkeys, circling around the
unclean street like flies, with apparently as little
industrial effort — a good-tempered, dirty, un-
improvable trihe, whom water and improvement
never touch.

But the banished old Ezbekieh of twelve
years ago is not the only lost vision for which
the returning pilgrim vainly strains his wonder-
ing eyes. Other equally familiar friends, once
daily visible in his walks and rides about the
city, have equally disappeared.

As he was wont to sit under the stately syca-
mores of the Ezbekieh, there used, at eventide,
to prance gaily by a cavalcade of gay and gal-
lant-looking Eastern cavaliers, splendidly habited
in Oriental costume, mounted on Arab steeds of
great beauty and price, whose crimson velvet
Turkish saddles were stiff with cloth of gold,
and whose silken bridle-reins were studded with
precious stones. Preceded by the running
Berber syce, in his picturesque costume of white
shirt, crimson sash or belt, and bare legs of
ebony, and attended at the stirrup by pipe-
bearer, nargileh in hand, whose long flexible tube
was often in the hand of the rider, these proud-
looking beys and pachas used to file slowly by,
looking neither to the right nor the left, to
the admiration of the motley crowd ever circu-

54 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

lating about or squatting under the trees of the
Ezbekieh.

Then also, ambling past on their sleek donkeys
• — huge bundles of black silk like unto balloons,
and with impervious veils, through which only
two bright eyes were perceptible, escorted by
the zealous eunuchs — could be seen in part the
ladies of the hareem : disdainful of side-saddles,
and riding astride like men, as a yellow shoe
perceptible on each side of the donkey conclu-
sively proved.

To these sights on the Ezbekieh there were
added many others of a purely Oriental cha-
racter ; such as the long string of laden camels,
with their serpent-like neck and crests, grunt-
ing hoarsely as though in complaint or wrath,
as they swung along their ungainly bulk and
burdens, moving the two legs on the same side
simultaneously. Occasionally, but very rarely,
the carriage of some European or Europeanized
pacha passed ; but that was the most unusual
kind of locomotion. The small coffee-houses on
the Ezbekieh — mere booths or sheds as they
were — constituted an attractive feature on sum-
mer evenings, when all the Levantine, and
much of the Egyptian world — that strange
amalgam of all races — came to sip coffee or
fiery "raki," smoke and talk scandal, in front
of these booths where chairs were placed ; while

IMPKOVEMENTS OF THE PICTURESQUE. 55

a band of Italian exiles made music at intervals,
passing round the hat for contributions.

At the opposite side of the Ezbekieh, nearest
the Mooskie, or street of Frank shops, the Arab
population were accustomed nightly to assemble,
squatting on their haunches in primitive Arab
fashion, in a circle around some favourite story-
teller giving them a re-hash of the " Thousand
and One Nights' Stories," still current coin
throughout the East ; only with added coarse-
ness, adapting them to coarser audiences. Here,
too, came the dancing and singing girls, to
win piastres or paras by the display of their
respective crafts, in the open air, to delighted
audiences. But, like the mirage of the desert,
with the old Ezbekieh these sights and sounds,
so truly Oriental, have passed away from the
vision of the traveller, as he sits on the verandah
of his hotel. All is now decorous,, dull and
European in the prim gardens, which usurp a
portion of that vanished pleasure-ground, which,
picturesque as it was, must be confessed to have
been a public nuisance in many respects, how-
ever " sentimental travellers" may bewail the
substitution of cleanliness and order for dirt and
disorder, savoury for unsavoury smells. Much
sentimental rubbish has been written about this
improvement of Cairo; but, in a sanitary and
progressive point of view, no sensible man or

56 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT

woman, however sentimental, can deny the im-
provement and growth of Cairo, under the
demolishing tendencies of the Khedive. The
change in the modes of conveyance, however,
may merit regret; for now, instead of " mount-
ing barbed steeds," the pachas and beys, and
other native gentlemen, who used to be seen
prancing by in all their bravery, loll lazily back
in open victorias or barouches, drawn by sorry
jades, and driven by very dirty Arab charioteers,
smoking strong cigars of German origin, and
habited in Frank dress, with only the red fez
cap to mark their nationality.

The carriages of the Khedive, of his sons, and
of some of the ministers, are well appointed,
with fine horses, and still preceded by running
syces, and accompanied by guards in uniform ;
but the great majority of these turn-outs would
not pass muster on London cab-stands. It
must be confessed, that to see Egyptian officials
and private gentlemen lolling back in carriages,
and smoking cigarettes or cigars in place of
pipes, does bewilder old Eastern travellers ; and
that such will also mourn the disappearance of
the pipe and nargileh, formerly the symbol and
pledge of Eastern hospitality, since the chi-
bouque was always tendered to every guest by
public and private persons, until another regime
abolished them. They have been " improved"

VEILED FEMALE APPAKITIONS. 57

away ; and, save in the public coffee-houses and
among the common people, the cigar and cigar-
ette have superseded them.

In the outdoor life, the only touch of the
Orient left is afforded by the constant apparition,
or rather flitting by of the hareems, whose fair
representatives very freely take the air, and pass
and repass constantly in front of the great
hotels, wherein the travellers do congregate, in
their well-guarded carriages — one of the last
relics of the old system visible to the eye. Yet
their habits, too, have undergone a great
change. No longer are they ambulating or
equestrian balloons of black silk perched on
donkeys, or concealed in closed carriages ;
although the inevitable and irremovable black
guards still " guide their steps and guard their
rest," as in the days when Byron sung of them.
Standing in the front of your hotel, you see the
veiled fair ones of the hareem slowly borne past,
at morning and eventide, in the neatest Parisian
or English coupes, drawn by the finest English
horses, and dressed in the latest Parisian modes
—all except the face, which, half-hidden, half
revealed, is covered with a gossamer veil, which
also drapes the bosom. This veil, of the most
cobweb lace, does not prevent their seeing and
even saluting occasionally the passing stranger,
to the great disgust of their sable guards ; and

58 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the intensity with which they regard the outer
world from the windows of their carriages,
augurs well for their thirst for information. All
the follies of European fashion have been, I am
told, transferred to the East ; for European
costume is now the rage in the hareems, and
Lyons silks of brightest colours, and French
boots with impracticable heels, have succeeded
the flowing draperies and shuffling slippers and
baggy breeches of the Eastern fair ones. Frank
women who have visited freely in the hareems
for the last two winters, deprecate this change,
fully as much as any of our sterner sex can do :
and declare that it not only robs the hareem of
all its romance, but most decidedly diminishes
the peculiar beauty of its inmates.

The Ismailieh quarter of Cairo is entirely a
new creation within the last six or seven
years, and is one of the prettiest portions of
the city. In order to encourage the erection
of good houses for the European and Euro-
peanized residents, and to attract new ones from
abroad, the Khedive offered to give building
lots, of the value of <£2000 and upwards, to
every person who would build thereon a house
of a fixed value ; rising in proportion to the
estimated worth of the gift. The bait took, and
the lots mapped out in the rear of the great
hotels, where there were no buildings, on the

THE ISMAILIEH QUARTER OF CAIRO. 59

outskirts of the city, in the direction of Boulak —
the old port of Cairo — were soon snatched up ;
and a new town of several thousands of houses
soon occupied the site. Most of these are good
substantial houses, in imitation of Swiss chalets
or English houses, and some are very fine,
costing as much as £20,000. Almost all have
gardens surrounding them, some very spacious
ones ; for reserved lots were purchased by enter-
prising natives in the vicinity. These latter are
chiefly the native or Levantine bankers, who
are the richest class in the community ; and
some of the pachas have also built large houses
on the Eastern plan, hareem accommodation
included. One of the largest and finest of the
Frank houses is that of Mr. Remington, the well-
known arms-manufacturer, who has armed the
Khedive's troops. The Duke of Sutherland is
another foreign real estate proprietor at Cairo ;
the English Club occupying one-half of the large
house he caused to be built.

I do not know the exact population of the
Ismailieh quarter; but it includes a greater
portion of the foreign population of Cairo, with
a large sprinkling of richer Levantines. Some
of the dwellings are quite palatial in their pro-
portions, and there is very little of the Eastern
element perceptible about them generally in this
neighbourhood; even the inevitable black Boab

60 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

(or door-keeper) of former times, in loose shirt,
naked legs, red morocco shoes, and ample
turban, with shaven head and snowy beard,
having disappeared. His sole duty used to be
his real or supposed guardianship of the gate or
door leading into his employer's house ; where,
night and day, he was to be seen squatting or
stretched at length on his cafass, or palm-twig
seat and bed, the Cerberus of the establishment.
But he was a solemn old fraud as to his police
functions, I am sorry to say, although a most
pictorial one — a Cerberus not even requiring a
sop to silence him : habitually asleep all day,
and generally requiring to be awakened by
visitors of good intentions ; and either revelling,
or prowling about like a dissipated old mouser,
at night, when he was supposed to be the
guardian of the gate, in reality as well as in
name. Still he was a necessary adjunct to
Eastern life, and especially to the picturesque
presentation of it.

He was evidently the parent and progenitor of
the French concierge, and like him or her a
domestic spy, paid by the occupant of the house
he does not protect ; and in all disagreeable
features the European imitation is a greater
nuisance than the Eastern — the latter, at least,
being civil to his master and to strangers ; the
former, like the ancient Eoman, regarding every

CHANGES OF CLIMATE AT CAIRO. 61

stranger as an enemy. Yet I confess I miss, at
Cairo, the grisly old vagabond " dweller of the
threshold."

The last Government census of Cairo dates
from 1868; and in the interval of nine years,
as the natural increase, especially among the
native population, is rapid, the figures in that
return mostly fall far short of the actual numbers
to-day.

In that table the number of strangers resident
at Cairo is given as 19,120, but the list includes
some strangers of Eastern origin. The total
population of the capital at that date is esti-
mated at 350,399, males and females, although
of course the female population must be taken
on trust by the census takers; owing to the
domestic arrangements of the native Cairenes.

It struck me — returning after an absence of
several years, three seasons since — that the
climate had perceptibly changed, being colder in
winter and hotter in summer than formerly. It
certainly is more damp ; and rainy and cloudy
days, which used to be very rare apparitions, are
now not unfrequent in winter, and fires, morning
and evening, quite necessary for comfort during
such changes of the weather. This is accounted
for by the larger space of water open to evapo-
ration all over the Delta and through the desert,
by the canals of various kinds, which have been

62 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

so greatly increased in number and size during
the last ten years.

Finally, with all due respect to the "spirit
of the age," as exemplified at Cairo, and the
Khedive's improvement of my favourite city, I
must express the opinion, that for that climate
the old system of narrow streets, and exclusion
of too much sunshine, together with the old
plan of Eastern huilding, were best suited to the
climate, place, and people.

CHAPTEK IV.

THE FOUNDERS OF THE DYNASTY.

Mehemet All — Soldier of fortune — Satrap and viceroy — Parallel
between the Napoleons of the East and of the West — His strange
career — Dreams of an Arab empire, like that of the caliphs — Why
he failed in establishing it — England's interposition — Rage of the
trapped lion — Cloudy close of a bright day — Personal traits and
anecdotes of Mehemet Ali — His son Ibrahim, regent and successor —
His short lease of power — Can his dream be now fulfilled? — Reasons
for the establishment of an Arab empire at the present moment.

AUGUSTUS boasted that he found Rome of brick,
and left it of marble.

Mehemet Ali, founder of Egypt and of the
present Egyptian dynasty, within the memory of
men yet alive, found Alexandria a mass of ruins
and rubbish, a nest of needy fishermen and
pirates, and left it a city. He found all Egypt
a chaos, he left it a country.

The Egypt of the Pharaohs, familiar to all
readers of the Old Testament, and the Egypt of
the early Christians, so vividly depicted in
Kingsley's " Hypatia," where Goth, Greek, and
Koman struggled for the mastery, differed not

64 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

more widely from each other in all respects, than
from the country we know by that name to-day ;
which, in its turn, varies as widely from the
Egypt of the Mamelukes, known to the previous
generation.

For the impress of the first Napoleon was
not more strongly stamped on the empire he
founded, than that of Mehemet Ali upon the
country and the dynasty of his creation : wrung
from his trembling suzerain, the Sultan, at the
sword's point, and welded together by one man's
genius and courage.

As the bronze equestrian statue of " the Napo-
leon of Egypt" looks proudly down to-day from
the Grand Plaza of Alexandria, seeming to keep
watch and ward over the city of his love : so the
mighty shadow of its founder still seems to rule
Egypt from its urn, and protect it from the
shortcomings and sins of some, if not all, of his
successors.

There are curious coincidences in the cha-
racters and careers of the two " men of destiny "
in the East and in the West. Both were aliens
in blood and birth to the countries and people
over which they established their rule, and
founded their dynasties. Both were soldiers by
profession, and statesmen and lawgivers by intui-
tion. Both were crafty, cruel and unscrupulous,
never sacrificing the end for the means, nor

AN HISTORIC PARALLEL. 65

shrinking from acts of ruthless cruelty, when policy
or self-preservation prompted their commission.
The ambition of each was to found an empire,
and to obtain the succession for his son and his
son's sons for ever; and this too both seemingly
accomplished. What is stranger still, is that
the heritage left by the rude Eastern soldier of
fortune, has lasted longer than the far greater
one bequeathed by the mighty genius of modern
Christendom, whose puppets and playthings were
kings and crowns. As though to complete the
parallel, the two were almost as kindred in fate
as in renown; the end of each being equally
tragic. The Corsican ate out his own heart in
exile on the barren rock of St. Helena ; the
soldier from Cavalla died a prisoner in his own
palace, the ghastly wreck of his former self, his
fine mind and iron will shattered by madness,
alternating between moody despondency and
frenzy, until his practical deposition became a
State necessity, and his warrior son, Ibrahim
Pacha, was compelled to seat himself in the
chair of his yet living father. As though to
make this sad story sadder still, it is said the
madness came from a potion administered
through superstition or mistaken kindness by
one of his daughters, who was told she could
thus restore the old man's waning powers, but
whose fatal draught consigned him to a living

66 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

death. True or false, the story is still repeated
and believed in Egypt.

His dream of empire he soon converted into
a reality. From insubordination to the Porte,
he soon broke out into open rebellion ; and not
only seized on the Egyptian provinces, but
invaded both Arabia and Syria, through his
warlike son Ibrahim, and even menaced Con-
stantinople. His troops actually occupied Syria,
and his purpose was to found an empire like that
of the caliphs, over all the Arabic-speaking
people ; leaving the Porte those only who spoke
the Turkish tongue. But then a greater power
intervened between the rebellious vassal and the
powerless lord ; the Great Powers of Europe
(with the exception of France) interposed, and
by menace and force of arms wrested the prey
from the old lion, and compelled him to renew
his allegiance, and renounce his projects of ex-
tended empire.

It required the presence of an English fleet at
Alexandria, to compel him to sign a treaty of
peace with his sovereign, and resign his con-
quests ; tearing out handfuls of his white beard
in his wrath, under the compulsion, while he did
so. But he insisted on the retention of the
viceroyalty in his line for ever, and for quasi-
independence of the Porte in the same treaty
guaranteed by the Powers which compelled the
act of abdication.

MEHEMET ALl'S CHARACTER. 67

What Mehemet All did, in and for Egypt, has
passed into history. He created not only an
empire, but a people, out of the dozen different
nationalities which then, as now, constitute the
strange amalgam we vaguely term Egyptians.
Everywhere throughout Egypt and its depend-
encies, the hand of the mighty master is still
to be seen in the traces it has left — from the
Mahmoudieh Canal, connecting the waters of the
Nile with the Mediterranean, to the fairy-like
pleasure gardens of Shoubra, near Cairo ; from
the gigantic, but still uncompleted barrage, or
breakwater of the Nile, to the grand old syca-
more trees, which give their beautiful shade to
the gardens and the roads around Cairo and
Alexandria. The career of Mehemet Ali is as
familiar to every one as that of Napoleon, whose
footsteps he followed in the conquest of Egypt ;
and whose fiercest foes (the Mamelukes) he
crushed at one fell blow, combining craft,
cruelty, and treachery in the act which self-
preservation dictated. The man's character
should not be judged by this episode alone, nor
weighed in our balance ; for he was capable of
being swayed by high and generous impulses —
with more of the lion than the wolf in his
nature — and the necessity was very pressing and
very sore. So it is but fair to judge him by the
canons of his own time, place, and people, which

68 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

condoned his crime, and the terrible retribution
dealt on the savage oppressors and spoilers of
Egypt, who menaced his life, and meditated
against him the treachery in which he antici-
pated them.

Bid of this impediment, by alternate force
and fraud he worked his way doggedly on to
place and power : subduing first one province,
then another, in the name of his suzerain, the
Sultan, and welding together into one mass, and
under one rule, the scattered and warring tribes
and factions composing Egypt. Nor did he
confine himself to those limits, but carried fire
and sword and the terror of his name into the
desert, among the tameless Bedouins, then, far
more than now, the scourge and terror of the
peaceful peasant who had aught to pillage.
Having done all this in another's name, he began
to be weary of vassalage to his inferior in mind
and manhood, and commenced to plot and plan
for shaking off his fetters, and founding an
independent empire.

He brought order out of chaos ; he invited
and encourage^, European immigration, and
especially European merchants, to develop the
rich resources of the country, neglected and
despised by the warlike chieftains, who had been
ruling it with a rod of iron, and making it the
theatre of perpetual little local wars. Yet his

AN EASTEKN CANUTE. 69

mistakes, like his successes, were on a great
scale ; and inherited by his successors too.
Entertaining the notion, so common to unedu-
cated minds, that a country to be independent
and prosperous should produce within its own
borders everything requisite for the use of its
population, he sought to put this idea inta
practice in Egypt. Nature had made Egypt
agricultural, Mehemet Ali determined she should
be manufacturing too ! Begardless of expense,
he imported large quantities of costly machinery,
with skilled operatives at high wages, erecting
vast mills all over the Delta, that manufactures
on a large scale might be produced. The
skeleton ruins of those mills, many of them still
filled with the rusty remains of the machinery
left there when the failure was manifest, attest
the cost of the lesson given this Eastern Canute,
whose will was to override all natural laws. His
successors have not profited, as they should have
done, by this useful lesson ; for similar wreck and
waste may be witnessed to-day all over the
country, both of mills and machinery, of later
date than the days of the great founder of the
line of viceroys in name, but- kings in reality,
one of whom still sits upon the throne of the
Pharaohs.

He also strained the finances of the country
by his lavish expenditure, and it is ciirious to

70 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

read in the annals of Ms contemporaries of the
straits to which he was often reduced, and his
sudden and inexplicable command of money
from no visible source. History in Egypt re-
peats itself more curiously than elsewhere, as
well as the personal traits of its rulers, and the
mystery which envelops the proceedings, not
only of its officials, but of its finances, which
have ever appeared and disappeared in a truly
wonderful and inexplicable manner.

The early period was the golden age for the
foreign merchants, invited by Mehemet Ali to
develop the commerce of the country, to whom he
gave very large commissions for the purchase of
what he required, and great facilities for enriching
themselves. Englishmen, Greeks, and Italians
came at his call, and established great houses,
and were merchant princes indeed, their scale of
living being proportionate to their vast opera-
tions and immense gains. They lived in houses
as large as palaces, kept large retinues of ser-
vants and retainers, entertained magnificently
and with the greatest profusion, and were lavish
in expenditure. One of these, a Tuscan, kept
twenty carriages, that he might always be able
to send them to convey his guests to and from
their residences ; his palace, surrounded by mag-
nificent gardens, being four miles out of town.
Another reserved every Friday evening, during

THE GOLDEN AGE OF EGYPT. 71

the winter season, for a grand ball at his man-
sion, in addition to grand dinners three times a
week. The latter relic of those good old days
survived to the patriarchal age of 90 years,
in full possession of his faculties ; and continued
his hospitalities down to the third generation of
his guests.

Grand as were the prizes offered, and great
the fortunes accumulated in the days of the
earlier viceroys, strange to say the number of
Europeans attracted there was comparatively
small always. As late as 1852 there were not
more than 20,000 foreigners at Alexandria, and
2000 at Cairo. Yet the absolute rule of Mehemet
Ali may he said to have commenced full forty
years before.

If the viceroy was lavish of the earnings of
his subjects, he was not sparing of their flesh and
blood ; and the condition of the fellah, or agri-
cultural labourer, then was very much worse
than his lot to-day, for he was then treated
as a slave and serf (adscriptus glebce), whose
labour was compulsory, paid by enough coarse
food to keep body and soul together, and enough
rough covering to conceal partially his or her
nakedness. He could not leave his native
village to settle elsewhere without special per-
mission from the governor of his province. If
he ventured he was caught, bastinadoed, and

72 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

taken back to his usual toil in the usual place,
if not sent to the army or the galleys. By forced
corvees he was compelled to labour on the public
works without pay, and often without food,
unless he brought it with him, through the
rascality of the subordinate officials, who robbed
him of that which the Government was supposed
to supply, but never stinted him of the basti-
nado. In fact, he was treated like a brute, and
compelled to live like a beast. His lot is cer-
tainly somewhat ameliorated now, yet there is
still great room for improvement in the condi-
tion and treatment of the Egyptian peasantry —
the most amiable, patient drudges in the world,
constituting as they do the bone and muscle
of the country, and the source of all its wealth
and productiveness.

When Mehemet Ali caused the Mahmoudieh
Canal to be dug by fellah labour, cutting a broad
ditch to connect the waters of the Nile with the
sea at Alexandria— a work of vast utility before
the railway communication existed — he is said
to have sacrificed to it the lives of many thou-
sands of these poor wretches ; set to dig with no
proper tools, under the burning sun of Egypt,
labouring day and night under cruel task-
masters, without food or shelter. The pyramid
of skulls erected by the savage Eastern warrior,
was not a sterner memento mori, nor a more

THE FELLAH OF FICTION AND REALITY. 73

tragic record, than the Mahmoudieh Canal. The
terrible burden of the old song —

" A pickaxe, and a spade, a spade !
Ay ! and a winding sheet,"

might have been chanted by these poor
wretches of the Nile, who thus dug their own
graves while digging this canal. But on this
subject I shall have more to say when treating
of the fellah as he was and as he is ; not the
" fellah " of M. About's charming fiction, but
the grimy and oppressed reality, owing all the
blessings he enjoys chiefly to God's good grace,
and his hardships to " man's inhumanity to
man," which does literally "make countless
thousands mourn " in the old house of bondage,
where the nominal slave has not really the
heaviest fetters to wear.

To return to the maker of Egypt. Although
totally uneducated, and therefore destitute of
much general information, the natural genius of
the man and his quick mother- wit supplied to a
great extent his want of culture. His readiness
of retort was worthy of a French wit. One
illustration may suffice to show its quality. A
French engineer being asked what he thought of
the plan of the Mahmoudieh Canal, while it was
in course of completion, ventured this criticism :

" Your Highness must pardon my suggesting
that your canal will be very crooked."

74 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

"Do your rivers in France run in a straight
line ? " abruptly responded the Pacha.

" Certainly not," answered the astonished
Frenchman.

"Who made them? Was it not Allah ? "
again questioned the Pacha.

" Assuredly, your Highness," replied the
Frenchman, who thought his questioner's wits
were wandering, and could not comprehend what
he was aiming at.

" Well, then," answered Mehemet Ali, trium-
phantly, "do you think that either you or I
know better than Allah how water ought to run ?
I imitated him in my canal ; otherwise it would
soon have been a dry ditch, not a canal."

The Frenchman was silenced, if not con-
vinced ; and the canal is certainly very crooked
still.

Like all Eastern rulers, the grim old warrior,
nursed from boyhood in the lap of war, was to a
certain extent a voluptuary, although he never
allowed his pleasures to interfere with his duties
or his ambitious schemes. The gleaming white
walls of the palace of Eas el Tin, which first
strike the traveller's eye on entering the harbour
of Alexandria, mark one of his favourite re-
sorts. Another was the garden of Shoubra, near
Cairo, in which he built a spacious kiosque of
white marble, embowered in tropical foliage,

THE PACHA'S PLEASURE PALACE. 75

where the golden orange glows in the midst of
the dark green foliage, and the senses ache with
the perfume of roses and other fragrant flowers.
It was a lofty building in the form of a hollow
square; and in the central open space, over
which there was no roof, like the old impluvium,
was an artificial lake, about four feet deep,
paved with marble, with an elevated marble
resting-place in the centre.

Here, when his beard was like snow, and his
blood circulated more slowly, the old man was
wont to repair, to relax mind and body from
the fatigues and cares of State. Perched on
this central seat, he would amuse himself for
hours, watching the gambols or the fright of his
hareem women, who he would cause to be rowed
or paddled about in small boats around this
mimic lake, at a secret signal from himself to
the boatmen causing them to be upset into
the water, and witnessing with delight their
struggles afterwards. Strange contrariety of
human nature ! that this grim old soldier,
whose savage nature and fierce eye (as we see
in his latest portraits) even years could not
tame or subdue ; stained with the blood of the
slaughtered Mamelukes, and surrounded by
tragic memories, should have found pleasure in
such childish sport as this, even when trembling
on the verge of the grave !

76 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

But in every Eastern nature — which essen-
tially differs from the Western — we find the
extremes of ferocity and levity blended incon-
gruously together ; and the Pacha who inspires
you with fear or with admiration one moment,
by some childish act converts both into con-
tempt or pity. But Mehemet Ali was an ex-
ceptional man, both in the evil and the good he
wrought in and upon Egypt, of which the latter
predominated. Let us bury the former and for-
get it ; in memory of the latter, which lives
after him, and embalms his memory in the
annals of modern Egypt.

Of his successor for a short term, his warrior
son Ibrahim, who swept like a flame through
Syria and Arabia, and was the sword-hand of his
father, his military genius was his chief cha-
racteristic, and the record of his battles the
record of his life. The pious care of his son,
the present Khedive, has erected a fitting monu-
ment to his memory, in the spirited equestrian
bronze statue, which he has caused to be placed
at Cairo, overlooking an open square near
the Mooskie, or quarter of European shops.
Mounted on his war-horse, which seems to snuff
the battle afar off, with outstretched arm point-
ing out farther conquests to his fierce followers,
he looks every inch a soldier, and born leader of
men on the battle-field. What his abilities as a

CAN MEHEMET ALl'S DREAM BE REALIZED? 77

civilian or viceroy may have been he did not
reign long enough to develop ; and he has there-
fore left no mark upon Egyptian administration
or Egyptian affairs ; though, during his adminis-
tration as his father's representative in Syria, he
is said to have displayed considerable adminis-
trative ability. Personally he seems to have
been a bold, frank man, a warm friend, and
equally good hater, though not vindictive or
cruel ; but, as before remarked, it is as a soldier
chiefly that he will be remembered. He once
visited London, and was known to the ragged
boys of the metropolis, to whom a Turk was
then a rarity, as Abraham Parker ! into which
they translated his patronymic, on the phonetic
principle.*

In view of recent events, and of the impend-
ing disintegration of that huge colossus, by
courtesy styled the Turkish Empire, over whose
broken fragments there must be a European
scramble ere long, the question now suggests
itself, whether the Power which thwarted the
project of Mehemet Ali, might not now wisely
resuscitate and perfect it ?

An Arab empire, with Egypt at its head, em-
bracing Syria and Palestine on the one side, and
Arabia on the other, under a protectorate of two
or more of the Great Powers, would oppose a

* His reign lasted but seventy days after his inauguration.

78 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

breakwater to Russian aggression on the one
hand, and relieve that alien race from the exac-
tions and misgovernment of the Porte, which
has amply proved its nnfitness to govern, and
which in fact does not govern them ; the limits
of its authority being those of its garrisoned
towns, outside of which protection from native
sheiks is essential for the traveller's safety, and
of whose nominal rule, the tax-gatherer is the
only representative. Such a rule as has made
Tunis a responsible government, and is redeem-
ing Egypt from its " Slough of Despond," by the
introduction of real, not sham, improvements in
its internal administration, could as readily be
established over the countries I have named,
combined into a federation, whose centre would
be Egypt, as the Arab-speaking country, already
so far advanced on the march towards civiliza-
tion.

It seems equally impossible now, to allow the
rich countries named to languish much longer
under the sickly beams of the waning Crescent,
to be annexed to the Russian Empire even in
part, or to be allowed to relapse into still greater
anarchy than that which reigns therein to-day,
in view of their importance strategically and
commercially, lying as they do in part on the
route to India. Among the various propositions
made as to the partition of the Turkish Empire,

AN ARAB EMPIRE., 79

it strikes me as surprising, that British statesmen
have not, as in the case of the Suez Canal,
reconsidered and reversed the policy of their
predecessors, and made the dream of old
Mehemet Ali, which they so rudely dissipated,
a reality in the hands of his successors ; under
good and sufficient guarantees and proper
securities that the powers thus conferred
should not be abused, but exercised for the
benefit and improvement of the most intelligent,
docile, and laborious of all the races of the East,
whose only ties to the Turk are now, as they
ever have been, those of faith, subjugation, and
taxation.

My own experience of these countries and
people convinces me, that the accomplishment of
this scheme would be comparatively easy now —
far easier, in fact, than that which the gallant
Gordon is now attempting, in the interests of
civilization and humanity, among the savage
negro races of Central Africa.

80 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE V.

ABBAS PACHA.

Accession of Abbas Pacha — Personal description of him — His peculiar
character and habits — -A Turk of the Turks — Contrasted with Said
Pacha — His treatment of his people — The new " house of bondage "
under him — His closing tragedy — A dead man's drive — His son
El-Hami— A fated family line.

MEHEMET ALI and Ibrahim Pacha were hefore
my time in Egypt, and of them I speak merely
from history and from hearsay, having associated
subsequently with those who had been inti-
mately acquainted with both these rulers of men.
All of their successors I have known well, and
have been brought into intimate official and
private connection with for many years. Of
them therefore I can speak from personal know-
ledge, including the Khedive Ismail, who in-
herits many of the traits of his great progenitors
as an administrator and manager of men, but
whose ambition, though equal to his ancestor's,
does not work through the sword or through
force, but through diplomacy and persuasion.

DESCRIPTION OF ABBAS PACHA. 81

Between the reigns of Ibrahim Pacha and the
Khedive's two others intervened, those of Abbas
Pacha and of Sai'd Pacha, who though partaking
of the same blood, and members of the same
family, differed from each other in every par-
ticular and in every quality, physical and moral.
Far as the poles asunder were these two men,
and as opposite the impression made and left
by each of them upon their common heritage.
Abbas was a sullen, suspicious, timid tyrant,
hating and fearing the European element his
grandfather had introduced, and striving to put
back the shadow on the dial-plate of progress
moving in the direction of European civiliza-
tion. Though born and bred in Egypt, he was a
Turk of the Turks.

His complexion was much darker than that
of the majority of his family, most of whom are
fair, with reddish beards. Abbas was swarthy,
with a scanty beard, short and stout of figure,
with a bloated, sensual face, and dull, cruel eyes.
Yet there was both energy and intelligence
manifested in this repulsive countenance, when
warmed into interest or animation on any
matter that touched him nearly. His manners,
like those of all high Turks, were bland and
polished ; for in all that constitutes perfect good
breeding the Eastern surpasses the average
Western man. Of his morals the less said, the

82 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

better, if Alexandrian and Cairene gossip can be
relied on. But on this point I cannot testify
from personal knowledge, not having ever been
on the same intimate terms with him, socially,
as with his two successors.

He understood and spoke no European
language — an exception in his family, all the rest
of whom have a thorough knowledge at least of
French — and therefore always conversed with
foreign agents, whom he saw as seldom as
possible, through the medium of an interpreter,
which of course prevented much interchange
of ideas or feelings ; for decanted champagne
frappe is not flatter or colder, than conversa-
tion thus carried on. If in his relations with
foreigners he was unsympathetic, in his conduct
towards his own people he was arbitrary, rapa-
cious, and cruel to the last degree. The
possession of wealth was often only a passport to
Fazougli (the Egyptian Cayenne) for its pro-
prietor, and the confiscation of the property,
"for treason," to the State (that is, the vice-
roy's) coffers.

With foreigners he could not meddle — they
were safe under their consular protection — nor
could he expel them for the same reason; but
trade was crippled under his reign, since even
his avarice, which was great, could not conquer
his prejudices, and induce him to encourage and

A TRICK OF THE TURKS. 83

foster the commerce of the country. With his
own people his will was law : for he paid heavy
backsheesh to Constantinople, partly to be let
alone, and partly in the hope of changing the
succession in favour of his son, El-Hami — a
dream which every viceroy has indulged in, and
which the Khedive has finally made a reality.

El-Hami was afterwards married to one of the
Sultan's daughters, and kept in splendid slavery
at Constantinople — as the sons-in-law ever are —
and was finally drowned while on a pleasure
party ; being of a gay and festive turn of mind,
and much addicted to the wines as well as the
customs of France.

During the reign of Abbas the Crimean war
broke out, and the Sultan called on his vassals
for men and money, to which Abbas promptly
responded ; and Egyptian blood and treasure
were as freely poured out as water on the sands,
then as now, to protract the death agony of
the effete and imbecile dynasty of the Sublime
Porte.

At the same time came an order from the
Porte to expel from Egypt the entire Greek
colony there, not enrolled as rayahs, or Chris-
tian subjects of the Porte ; a measure the cruelty
of which may be appreciated, when it is stated
that the execution of this harsh measure would
have entailed swift and sure ruin on that whole

84 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

community, numbering many thousands ; among
whom were many of the oldest and most respect-
able of the foreign residents and merchants.
Their protests were not listened to, and they
were given but forty-eight hours to leave the
country. The consular corps, as a body, having
declined to interfere in their behalf, on account
of the political complications of their respective
countries, it was my good fortune to have been
enabled to take the responsibility of retaining
and protecting these luckless people during the
continuance of the war, by placing them under
the protection of my flag — a privilege accorded
all Christian Powers under the old capitulations —
after much trouble, and diplomatic and personal
pressure on the viceroy.

I must do Abbas Pacha the justice to say that
in this matter he showed either good feeling or
indifference, and did not press the execution of
the stern edict with zeal. On the contrary, when
representations came from the agents of other
foreign Powers, as to his non-execution of this
order, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said :
" What can I do ? These people have obtained
another protection, and I cannot interfere with
them, without insulting a great nation." So, after
much diplomatic correspondence, the Greeks
remained in Egypt, and the order was practically
never enforced, except in a few instances where

A FATED FAMILY. 85

the parties were noisily partisan in their demon-
strations or conversation. After the war was
over, the King of Greece proffered me the Grand
Cross of Sauveur, as a testimonial of his, and his
people's gratitude.

The character of Said was precisely the reverse
of that of his nephew. A bold, frank, fearless,
and reckless man, fond of foreign society, speak-
ing French like a Parisian, and enjoying, of all
things, the witty turns of which that language
is capable ; himself a wit of no mean calibre,
and equally irreproachable in his cook and his
cellar. It was like emerging from darkness into
sunshine when he succeeded Abbas, who, though
his nephew, preceded him under the provision
of the firman decreeing that the succession
should pass to the " eldest male of the blood of
Mehemet Ali." Abbas was a little older than
Said, and so inherited, owing his own succession
to the terrible tragedy which removed his father
from the line. That father having been sent by
Mehemet Ali to demand tribute of a semi-savage
chief in the Soudan, surnamed the " Tiger of
Shendy," having insulted and struck him, was
deliberately roasted alive in his tent the same
night, together with his whole troop, by his
treacherous and vindictive host, who surrounded
the tents in which they were sleeping with
dried corn-stalks and drove them back with

86 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

their lances into the flames when they sought
to escape. The fate of Abbas was as tragic
as that of his father, he too perishing by perfidy
and violence ; and the shadow of his coming
doom seems to have been stamped both on
his countenance and his soul. He forboded
that fate, and took extraordinary precautions to
avoid it ; and those very precautions rendered
its execution all the more easy, although he sur-
rounded himself with guards, banished men on
mere suspicion, and ate no food that was not
prepared by his old mother's hands, or under her
immediate supervision.

Nothing is more indicative of character and
disposition than the choice and surroundings of
a man's residence. Mehemet Ali, Ibrahim, and
Said, all dwelt much in the public eye, chiefly
at the palace of Kas el Tin looking on the sea,
accessible to all comers. Their leisure hours
they solaced either in the lovely gardens of
Shonbra, where the plash of fountains, the scent
of roses, and the songs of birds created an
earthly paradise, which earthly houris were not
lacking to complete ; or they rehearsed the game
of war under tents, with from 10,000 to 20,000
troops around them.

But Abbas lived as he died, alone. Seldom
seen by his people, never by foreigners, except
from necessity, his favourite haunts were secluded

THE CLOSING TRAGEDY. 87

palaces, remote from cities and men, which he
built in the desert. There, surrounded only hy
a few cringing slaves, and by the savage beasts he
collected into menageries, he shrouded himself
like Tiberius at Capri, and was as solitary in his
death as in his life. He was strangled while he
slept by two of his own slaves — boys sent him
from Constantinople by a kinswoman — but the
exact manner, as well as the inciting cause to
his murder was, and is still, a mystery. The
fact only is certain, as well as that of the ghastly
farce which was played by the Governor of Cairo
with the corpse of the dead man.

Summoned secretly and suddenly from Cairo,
at the dead of night, to the Benha palace,
twenty miles from Cairo, where the deed was
done, Elfy Bey, the Governor of Cairo, gave
strict orders that no one should divulge the
death of Abbas. Ordering the state carriage
to be brought to the private entrance, assisted
by the head eunuch, he placed the body in a
sitting posture within it, and taking his own
seat opposite as usual, drove the twenty miles
to Cairo, surrounded by guards and the usual
state, in this ghastly companionship. He
reached the citadel at Cairo with his mute
companion, without exciting suspicion, aided by
the habitual shrinking from observation which
characterized his master ; and once there, caused

88 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the guns of the citadel to be pointed on the city,
strongly reinforced the garrison, and declared
the truth, together with his intention of pro-
claiming El-Hami viceroy in defiance of the
rights of Sai'd. This purpose he was induced to
abandon on representations of Sir Frederick
Bruce, the English consul-general, and myself
• — both of us then at Cairo — and our friendly, as
well as formal warning that such action on his
part would be treasonable, induced him to
abandon the design, and to invite and welcome
the new viceroy to Cairo ; whither he came and
was installed, without delay. The days of that
governor were not long in the land, as he died
very soon and very suddenly thereafter : removed
doubtless by some super-serviceable courtier —
for the character of Sai'd forbade even the sus-
picion of his complicity in any act of treachery
or cruelty.

But throughout the East, from the rivalry
produced among brethren, through the system
of polygamy producing separate families under
the same roof, with separate interests, and in
princely families more especially, a man's worst
enemies are often literally " those of his own
household ; " and hence there has been little
love lost among the descendants of Mehemet
Ali. Sai'd collected the scattered sticks of the
faggot) which Abbas had divided; but on his

A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD. 89

death they were scattered again — the two
nearest in succession, Mustapha and Halim,
settling down at Constantinople, where the
Porte promoted them to high offices, and kept
them in terror em over the head of Ismail. Of
these, Mustafa, who was a great intriguer and
ahle man, much distrusted by the Khedive, died
but a year ago, and his family have been sent
for and taken charge of by Ismail, who has also
gained possession of his great landed estates,
which Mustafa sold before his death. Halim
is still alive ; but his lands, too, including the
Shoubra gardens, have also passed into the
Khedive's hands. It is he whose succession was
set aside by the Sublime Porte, in favour of
Tewfik, the son of Ismail, but four years since.
He holds, or did hold, one of the portfolios
at Constantinople, and of him more anon ; as,
on the impending break-up of the Ottoman
Empire, he and his claims may come to the
surface again some day.

The young prince El-Hami was generously
treated by Said, who allowed him to retain the
bulk of his father's fortune, and showed friendly
dispositions to him ; but he died early, and with
him ended the line of Abbas, whose wealth, too,
passed away like an exhalation, in the hands of
his improvident and reckless son.

But Abbas, as a ruler, was to a certain extent

90 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

a success. He so managed the finances of
Egypt as to keep clear of debt. Under his reign
the railroad system was inaugurated — chiefly, it
is true, under English pressure — to meet the
wants of the Indian transit ; agriculture was
encouraged and developed, and many of the
wild projects of his predecessor discontinued.
Little as he loved the foreigner, he was cunning
enough to see the uses to which he might he
put ; and though he did not encourage immigra-
tion, he did not interfere directly or openly
with the trade and commerce carried on by the
foreigners. The foreign agents, with whom he
could only converse by proxy, were his bad
dreams, and he avoided them as much as pos-
sible— far less dreamed of entertaining them, as
did his successor, on a scale of truly princely
hospitality. Under him, Egypt increased and
prospered materially, but not socially or morally;
and the condition of the fellah during his term
was that of a dumb drudge, a patient ox, for
whose mental or bodily improvement his task-
master had no care. Such was the condition of
"the house of bondage" when Said succeeded
Abbas in August, 1854.

CHAPTEE VI.

THE EEIGN OF SAID PACHA.

Pacha's accession — The new era introduced by him — Eeversal
of his predecessor's policy, and private conduct — Attempt to bind
together the family faggot — His social habits — His great fetes —
His princess, Ingee Khanum — His personal appearance and character
— Resemblance physically and morally to " Bluff King Hal " — His
military mania — Life under tents, and black knights in chain armour
— His work in Egypt — A bright dawn and stormy sunset.

WITH the accession of Said Pacha a new era
may be said to have commenced in Egyptian
administration. He was one of the younger sons
of Mehemet Ali, by a different mother from
Ibrahim's, or the father of Abbas, and bore the
traits of his fair Georgian mother in complexion
and figure. Carefully educated by an accom-
lished French tutor (Kcenig Bey), who took
good charge of the morals as well as of the mind
and manners of his pupil, Said Pacha was
a gentleman in our acceptation of that term, a
good French scholar, with some knowledge of
English, a man of large and liberal views, and
extremely fond of association with Europeans,

92 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

whose manners and habits he had adopted in
his private Hie : with the exception of course
of his hareem arrangements.

In policy, as well as in his habits and modes
of thought, Said was the direct opposite of his
predecessor ; and it was he who gave the first
strong impulse to the improvements and pro-
gress which have, within the last twenty-two
years, placed Egypt in the van of the great
march of Western civilization eastwards, and
given the performance as well as the promise of
reform in administration and national life. For,
in reversal of his predecessor's policy of isolation,
he at once inaugurated a large and liberal
policy of expansion. He invifced and encouraged
European immigration, and under his reign the
foreign colony more than doubled its numbers.
As late as 1854 the European residents at Alex-
andria did not exceed, if they amounted to,
20,000, and there were not more than 2000 at
Cairo, with a few scattered over the villages in
the Delta, representing Alexandrian houses. By
encouraging foreign immigration, surrounding
himself with European employes in the different
administrations, inviting eminent engineers, and
removing many of the restrictions on trade and
commerce imposed by Abbas, the new viceroy
gave a powerful impulse both to the agricultural
and commercial development of the country.

SAID PACHA'S CHARACTERISTICS. 93

As his great father made the first step in the
creation of the country, so Said may be credited
with the second in its expansion, as the Khedive
is entitled to the credit of having done much more
to perfect what his predecessors planned. He
recalled all the members of his own family from
Constantinople and elsewhere, as well as many
state prisoners languishing at Fazougli, and
sought to make himself the father of his family
connection, as well as of his people. In regard
to the latter, he was fond of repeating the wish
of Henri Quatre, when he said the height of
his ambition was " that every peasant in his
dominions should have a fowl in his pot every
Sunday for his dinner." As far as he could,
Said carried out this sentiment ; as I shall
show when treating the subject of the Egyptian
labourer later on.

The stranger who attended one of his recep-
tions, or the entertainments which he gave on a
scale of great magnificence, blending the Euro-
pean and the Eastern styles, and who fancied an
Egyptian prince must be an Othello, with " a
sooty visage," was ever surprised to find a coun-
terpart of the portraits of Henry VIII. of Eng-
land, in complexion, beard, face, and figure, in
Said Pacha. The similarity in temper, manner,
and character was equally striking, though the
bluff manner was redeemed and softened, on

94 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYFI.

public occasions, in the viceroy by that exqui-
site polish of manner, in which the Turkish
gentleman excels. Even as regards the multipli-
city of wives, the Englishman was more Eastern
than Said : whose princess, Ingee Khanum, still
surviving and living in state as his widow,
one of the most charming and accomplished of
Eastern women, by the concurring testimony
of all who know her, shared his throne and his
affections exclusively to the end of his life.

Said Pacha was fair, with a ruddy complexion,
and reddish beard and hair ; his features were
regular, the expression of his face frank and
open. His figure was large and muscular, indi-
cating the immense personal strength which
increasing corpulence and illness marred in his
later years. His eyes though small were bright,
and he did not, like most Turks, keep them
habitually half closed ; but they had none of the
sleepy langour of his race, but flashed with fun
or blazed with anger, as his excitable temper and
changing mood moved him. Neither did he
avoid a direct glance at his interlocutor, in
Eastern fashion, but looked straight in the face
of the person with whom he was conversing.
His readiness of wit, and the charm of his con-
versation (conducted in French, which he spoke
as his mother tongue), rendered him a delightful
companion; and he was convivial at the table,

SAID'S HOSPITABLE HABITS. 95

without going into excess — drinking wine in
moderation, ever of the most superior quality.
His " French cook/' who was an Arah, used
to prepare for the breakfast dishes worthy of
the most famous Parisian restaurants ; Said
appearing in the loose Turkish summer dress
he wore in private, which made him look like a
huge bale of cotton, being all of fine white linen.
Generous to a fault, and liberal to prodigality, he
pushed those virtues to excess, and was deceived
and preyed upon by many whom he rewarded
and trusted, until, like most princes, he became
soured and distrustful in his later days. After
a long and most intimate acquaintance with
Sai'd Pacha, without being blind to his faults
and shortcomings, I can truly say that, in my
widely varied experience of men and countries, I
have met no nobler and manlier nature than his,
either Christian, Turk, or infidel ; and in his
early prime, before disgust and disease had
warped, though they never obliterated, his higher
traits of character, he was every inch a king and
a gentleman by God's own patent. In imitation
of Mehemet Ali, and in direct contradiction to
Eastern etiquette, Said Pacha courted pub-
licity, and was more easy of access than Euro-
pean monarchs, hedging himself in with as few
formalities as he possibly could, in consonance
with the prejudices of his people, who are strong

96 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

believers in "the divinity that doth hedge a
king." He gave grand fetes continually, to
which all European men were free to come,
whether invited or not, at which he entertained
the foreign consuls-general and distinguished
visitors to Egypt right royally. His open-air
fetes, in which thousands participated, renewed
the recollections of the " Thousand and One
Nights/' with the variegated lamps suspended
from the trees of his palace parks, and the
Oriental costumes of his courtiers and people.
To these the European ladies passing through
Cairo frequently came, but uninvited ; the march
of Frank customs not having yet been accele-
rated to the pace now followed by the Khedive,
whose balls at Ab-din every winter are exact
copies of European royal entertainments.

Said Pacha's natural instincts were those of a
soldier, and as happily he had no opportunity of
indulging them in actual warfare, he amused
himself with its mimicry — paid great attention to
the recruiting, equipment, drill, and manoeuvring
of his army, which he raised to the number of
50,000 men, and spent much time under tents,
taking a large force with him into the desert to
drill and manoeuvre. He changed the Stambouli
or " Frank" uniform, adopted by Abbas, back
into the more appropriate Eastern costume ; and
in addition to his 30,000 or 40,000 infantry in

BLACK KNIGHTS IN CHAIN ARMOUR. 97

baggy breeches, and jackets of white with metal
buttons, equipped several squadrons of horse in
fancy style.

One of the most striking of these was a troop
of gigantic Nubians, clad from head to heel in
the chain armour of the early Crusaders, with
their black barbs in like panoply; and a grim
troop they looked, with their jet black faces,
black barbs, rolling white eyes, and rattling
chain armour. Another troop seemed sheathed
in gold, with bright brass breastplates on horse
and man, and glittering brass helmets on the
riders — preserved from sunstroke, under that
burning sun, by special grace of Allah alone.

His dinners were frequent, and the effect
produced by alternate layers of European and
native down the whole length of the long
festive board, presenting such striking contrasts
in costume and nationality, was curious in the
extreme. The viceroy and the foreign agents
dined at the head of the table on a raised plat-
form, and the entire service at each remove was
of gold, the epergnes, candelabra, etc., being all
of the same precious metal. The ladies of the
hareem, of course, were never visible ; but, in-
visible to us, bright eyes looked down and
watched the repast from peeping-places above,
the hareem wing giving a view of the banquet-
ing hall, so that the princess and her visitors

98 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

could amuse themselves with the spectacle, with-
out the trouble of entertaining the guests.

His restless nature kept him as busy in work
as play. He was ambitious of leaving a high
record behind him, and lent an ear to all schemes
of public improvement and utility. He sum-
moned Robert Stephenson, and a small army of
engineers, to make several lines of railway, in
addition to the one commenced under Abbas,
which at his death was completed only to Cairo ;
and during his whole reign that work went bravely
on. He employed the famous French engineer,
Mougel Bey, to carry out the great breakwater,
the Barrage of the Nile (to this day unfinished).
He caused new canals to be cut and opened
for irrigation ; improved the condition of the
fellahs, and tried to make large landed proprie-
tors out of the more intelligent among them ;
removed onerous taxes and restrictions ; built
model villages for the fellahs ; and finally, when
M. de Lesseps returned to Egypt — after leaving
the French diplomatic service, in which he had
served before in Egypt, while Said was a youth —
took him under his patronage and protection,
gave him the concession for the Suez Canal,
which has made the fame and fortune of that
energetic and adroit projector, and gave such
practical aid, pecuniary and moral, subsequently
to De Lesseps and his work, as insured the

SAID PACHA'S LIFE-WORK. 99

success of both ; in commemoration of which
the Mediterranean mouth of the canal bears his
name. He also adopted the telegraph, extending
the wires, not only from city to city, but high up
the Nile — -a startling innovation in Egypt, where
the old semaphore signals had hitherto been
regarded as the perfection of telegraphic com-
munication. He introduced steam pumps and
steam machinery of all kinds, for agricultural
purposes, into Egypt, and kept Father Nile within
his bed, out of which, as now, he annually at
a given time roused him, to take a run over
the country, instead of allowing him to tumble
out himself in primitive fashion. The annual
revenues of Egypt rose, under his judicious
management, from its imports and exports, to
j£6, 000,000 per annum — -an increase to which the
American civil war conduced, by creating a great
demand and higher prices for Egyptian cotton.
Remarking to me, on the breaking out of that
war, " Well, if your people stop growing cotton,
I shall be glad to supply their place," he did
strain every nerve to do so, greatly enriching
Egypt by the increased production of that
staple.

Before that war he had sent large orders to
America, and obtained large supplies of American
locomotives and open railway carriages, which he
considered best adapted for the hot climate of

100 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Egypt : ordering a very grand one for his private
use, including house and kitchen as well.

He had connecting lines of rail run up to the
back doors of his palaces, and when bored by
visitors or consuls-general, would slip away in
this house-carriage and stay somewhere on the
road for several days, as a practical joke. I saw
him last shortly before his death, in the summer
of 1862, at Paris, whither he had gone to consult
a famous surgeon as to the internal disease
which was then destroying him. His increasing
feebleness was rendered more perceptible from
the huge bulk of his body, swollen and flaccid
by disease. But his mind seemed still vigorous,
though his eye was dull ; and his manner had lost
little of its old charm, and his powers of retort
were as keen and caustic as ever. He saw and
submitted to his rapidly approaching doom, with
the blended stoicism of the fatalistic Turk, and
the resignation of the French pliilosoplie, both
of which characters were blended in his.

He died not long after, and was interred, not
among the others of his line, who have stately
mausoleums near Cairo, but in the burying
ground of a small mosque in the centre of Alex-
andria, where his mother's remains also rest.

If the early morn of Sai'd Pacha's reign was
bright and smiling with promise, its close was
dark and dreary enough to add another to the

A BRIGHT MORNING AND CLOUDY SUNSET. 101

many examples, from " Macedonia's madman "
to the Swede, to prove the vanity of human
hopes, and the nothingness of human grandeur.
He mounted the throne of Egypt in 1854, a gay,
hopeful, ardent man, with vigorous health,
boundless power, and almost inexhaustible
wealth. He left it but nine years later for a
premature grave ; his strength wasted to childish
weakness by disease and trouble ; hope, fortune,
friends, all lost ; and, with a soul as sick as his
body, welcomed death as a release from suf-
fering.

At my last interview with him, he expressed
deep regret that he had saddled his country with
a public loan and a public debt ; and that he
repented of it. When he died, I believe the
public debt of Egypt did not exceed .£5,000,000.
What it now is, under the fatal facility of credit,
and the new system of " financing " introduced
into Egypt, and flourishing like a poisonous
fungus for twelve years past, the world has been
informed through the reports of the financial
surgeons sent from Europe to probe and cure,
if possible, the gaping wound.

In justice to the Khedive of whom, once the
spoiled and petted favourite of Europe, few now
have a good word to say, it must be stated that
he treated Said's royal lady, and his only son,
Toussoun Pacha (who died the other day), like

102 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

a king and a kinsman ; and still continues so to
do to the surviving widow, who keeps up a state
and commands a respect second to none in the
reigning house, and is treated with equal con-
sideration and courtesy by the Khedive himself.
Toussoun he married to one of his daughters,
and made Minister of Education. He was much
respected and beloved, possessing his father's
traits of temper without his force of character.

Of Sard Pacha, in conclusion, it may be said
that, as he was human, he sinned and suffered,
both as a public and a private man. His faith
was that of Islam ; many of his ways were not
as our ways ; his civilization was blended with
barbarism; but he was a brave, true-hearted
man, a staunch friend, a forgiving enemy, a
just, humane, and judicious ruler over the
country which Providence had confided to his
care, Requiescat in pace !

llll

( 103 )

CHAPTEE VII.

THE FOKEIGN COLONY IN EGYPT IN OLDEN TIME.

The foreign colony in Egypt, under the earlier viceroys — Classification,
of them — The merchant princes — The European army officers — •
Suleyman Pacha, or Colonel Seves, commander-in-chief — Some anec-
dotes of him — Other conforming and non-conforming officials — Some
curious specimens — Talking only Arabic ! — Peculiar privileges of
foreign consuls-general and their proteges — The new mixed tribunals
superseding consular authority — A few words about them, and. the
old doctrine of " Exterritoriality."

I HAVE already stated that the foreign element
in Egypt, composed of Europeans and of Greeks
educated in Europe, played a conspicuous part
in the early history of Egypt, and that their
numbers were largely recruited during the reign
of Said Pacha, in consequence of his encourage-
ment to and patronage of them. I have also
slightly sketched the first pioneers of this tide
of Western civilization, the merchant princes, in
the preceding chapter. Of these, who came in
with Mehemet Ali, and gradually lost both their
monopoly of the trade, as well as of the heavy
commissions attendant on royal orders for

104 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

machinery, cotton goods, and other Western
productions, in consequence of the competition
of the later arrivals, it is unnecessary to say
more.

Let us cast a hasty glance over the other
classes composing this advanced guard of civili-
zation, presenting as they do many curious
subjects of contemplation and observation.
Among these there were not many who found
it necessary to become renegades, or profess or
practise the creed and habits of Islamism.

In the army was the Count Galeazzo Vis-
conti, of Milan, a scion of the old Italian
Viscontis, who held a captain's commission for
years, but who never owned a uniform, put
on a sword, or saw a review of troops, during
his long stay in Egypt. Lord Palmerston's
recommendation had obtained him his nominal
rank and duty ; and there were a legion of
such. Polish, Hungarian, Italian, Austrian,
and Venetian refugees came and settled down
in swarms ; some to useful pursuits, others
to nominal ones, or sinecures under the
Government. Among this latter class was one
man of rare ability and acquirements, the
Chevalier Geronimo Lattis, who, with Manin,
had been one of the triumvirate of the short-
lived Venetian republic. His scientific abilities
found a useful field in Egypt, and he was much

THE FOREIGN COLONY IN EGYPT. 105

consulted in agricultural matters by Sa'id Pacha.
I believe lie still lives, and resides in Egypt.

Another set of Christian employes was taken
from the class of r ayahs, or native Christians,
composed chiefly of Armenians, Syrians, Greeks,
and Coptic subjects of the Porte. These, though
little favoured by Abbas, were brought promi-
nently forward by Sa'id Pacha, who made Arakel
Bey — the brother of the now famous Nubar
Pacha, and like him an Armenian Christian —
Governor of the Soudan ; and Nubar himself his
Minister of Foreign Affairs, though then quite
a young man. The Copts, who seem to have
a natural aptitude for figures and accounts,
filled, as they still fill, the public offices ; and the
introduction of the railway and steam engine
involved the employment of English engineers.

So that the foreign colony waxed fat, and
became a most important element in the de-
velopment of the new Egypt of the successors
of Mehemet Ali : as it continues to-day, when
the control of the finances, of the railway, of
the docks and harbours, in fact of everything
but the army, as well as the great products
of the soil, has passed into foreign hands. The
Khedive has allowed himself to be treated as
Gulliver was in the land of Lilliput— tied down
by thousands of small threads, until he can
neither move hand nor foot of his own volition.

106 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Will he long continue to submit to this
abdication of the highest functions of govern-
ment, and entrust them to foreign hands ? Time
alone can tell.

An idea of the Babel of tongues prevailing
in Egypt, where all nationalities, Western and
Eastern, are represented, and where a man
should be a polyglot to prosper in trade or pro-
fession, may be formed from the statement that
the transactions of legal proceedings there in-
volves a knowledge of French, Italian, Greek,
and Arabic, all four of which, together with
other languages incidentally, must enter into the
pleadings.

Mehemet Ali, as an Albanian, was really more
Greek than Turk, though professing and reared
in the latter faith, in which he brought up his
family also. But he was no fanatic — even more
liberal in matters of faith than most Turks, who
are models in the matter of toleration, unless
their fanatical fervour is violently roused — and so
men served him faithfully, he cared little for the
creeds they professed. The same liberality of
feeling has ever been evinced by his descendants,
with the exception of Abbas, who was supposed
to be fanatical ; although he never gave much
practical demonstration of it, except by sanction-
ing by his presence the annual ceremony of
the Doseh, when the returning head of the

SULEYMAN PACHA'S STRANGE HISTOEY. 107

pilgrimage from Mecca rides over the bodies of
a pavement of living men — a kind of Egyptian
" Car of Juggernaut " ceremonial, which Sai'd
discontinued, and the present Khedive dis-
courages ; though I believe neither have been
able entirely to suppress this cruel relic of
barbarism.

In consequence of this toleration, but few of
the foreigners who sought the Egyptian service
conformed, and became Mussulmen in faith
and in mode of life.

One notable exception to this was Suleyman
Pacha, formerly Colonel Seves — a Frenchman
who served on the staff of Napoleon in his
Egyptian campaign, but remained after the
French had left the country ; and being a skilled
soldier, and a man of talent and energy, rose to
the rank of pacha and commander-in- chief of the
Egyptian forces ; dying at an advanced age, only
a few years since, in that position. Suleyman
Pacha did not do things by halves, but in all
respects conformed rigidly to the tenets and
practices of his new faith to the day of his
death, diminishing his license in the way of
wine, and increasing it in the way of wives;
living in every way in true Mussulman fashion,
and keeping up the old hareem usages. I knew
the old man, and met him on several occasions ;
and a more thorough Turk outwardly, in appear-

108 . THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

ance, manners, and habits, I never saw. Yet,
when excited or irritated, the nature of the
Frenchman would break through the conven-
tional mannerism of the Oriental, and the old
soldier of the Empire appear in full force. I
never heard him speak of his old souvenirs, or
make any reference to his past career. He
avoided European society ; and when forced into
it by his official position, his reserve and
reticence were truly Oriental. A stranger,
watching the dignified old man in his Oriental
costume, with his snowy beard falling on his
breast, on which glittered . the Order of the
Medjidie : his grave and composed manner,
and thoroughly Eastern aspect, would have
regarded him as the true type of the high Turk.
But one who knew his history, and marked the
occasional twitching of the mouth under the
heavy moustache, and the flash of the steel
grey eye, sharp as a scimitar, could detect the
French irritability and frivolity which were
masked under the Turkish phlegm.

He did his duty, however, thoroughly and
well, and enjoyed the confidence of several suc-
cessive viceroys, different in all respects ; dying
in harness at last, a very old man, in the full
odour of Egyptian Pacha-dom.

He was a good soldier and a stern martinet,
and greatly improved the efficiency and discipline

TALKING ONLY ARABIC. 109

of the Egyptian army. The present head of the
army is the Khedive's son Hassan, who is also
Minister of War, promoted recently in place of
Eatib Pacha, a Circassian, who made so bad
a mess of the late Abyssinian campaign, through
incompetence or "want of stomach for the
fight," or probably from a combination of the
two qualities. Suleyman Pacha evidently took
a leaf out of his old commander's book; for
the first Napoleon was philosophe under the
Directory, His most Catholic Majesty as emperor,
and a most excellent Mussulman at Cairo.

There were other foreigners in the service
who, without going so far as Suleyman Pacha,
in dress appearance, and even in speech, com-
monly passed for Turks with strangers. One
most ludicrous exemplification of this I have
frequently witnessed with great amusement, in
the time of Sa'id Pacha, when an Englishman,
got up in thoroughly Oriental style, and speak-
ing Arabic like a native, used to sit solemnly
on his divan at the railway-station, over which
he presided, and gravely listen, through his
interpreter, to the complaints made by British
officers and travellers from India, en route for
Alexandria to embark for Europe. "Ask that
lazy old Turk to stop making a chimney of
himself, and mind his business, or we will ask
our consul-general to ask his master to kick

110 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

him out of his place ! " and other such flattering
remarks would fall apparently unheeded on the
ear of the functionary, who sat cross-legged
smoking, while angry British officers used such
and stronger language, through their dragomen,
who in turn would translate into Arabic the
supposed substance of the observation. But
not even the movement of a muscle or the
twinkle of an eye would betray the farce he
was playing ; for, had his interlocutors known
he could understand their complaints, he would
have been overwhelmed with them. Hence, he
prudently kept his own counsel, and warned the
dragomen not to betray him ; and thus was
enabled to smoke his pipe in comparative com-
fort, while the traveller fumed and fretted away
his wrath, without venting it on the wearied
ears of the unmoved official.

There were numerous other foreign employes,
recruited from every land and language on which
the Western sun has shone, and political refugees
from all the countries of Europe, whom the year
of revolutions (1848) had driven abroad, and who,
under some foreign consular protection, sought
refuge and bread in the remote land of Egypt.

The confusion of tongues, from the mixture
of so many nationalities, still is made rubric on
the walls of Alexandria and Cairo, where flaming
posters are pasted up, either for advertising busi-

CONFUSION OF TONGUES AND NATIONALITIES. Ill

ness or amusement, in at least three or four
languages, French, Italian, English, and Arabic
— these being the most universally current, and
most generally understood.

Thirty years ago there were not more than
6000 foreigners in Egypt. At present, by the
consular registers, there are near 80,000 re-
corded as residents in the country ; and adding
to these a number in the cities and villages
who are not down on those registers, or resident
only during the winter months, the business
season in Egypt, the Khedive's own com-
putation of 100,000 foreign residents, made to
me, must rather be below than above the mark.*
The population of Cairo is about half a million,
of which probably 20,000 may be Europeans;
that of Alexandria, about 250,000, of whom
probably 50,000 are resident Europeans ; though
there are many Europeanized Greeks and
natives, who cannot be strictly enrolled as
foreigners, doing business there also ; with a
very large floating population annually visiting
Egypt for business, health, or pleasure. The
latter class spend much money in the country
in various ways.

The new mixed tribunals present the most
curious illustration of the confusion of tongues

* In Appendix marked D will be found the tabular statement,
taken from the consular registers.

112 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

above referred to. They are as mixed in
language as in law, and in the nationalities
of the judges and clients, and require a small
army of interpreters to act as intermediaries
between their component parts. The native
judges, who understand no language but their
own, and no law save that laid down in the
Koran, of course must find the sessions rather
tiresome : but preserve a most decorous judicial
gravity under the mask of their habitual Oriental
seriousness. The foreign judges, several of
whom, on arrival, were innocent of knowledge
of any but their native tongues, when plunged
into this seething cauldron of the French civil
law code, expounded by Italian, Greek, and
English advocates in such French and Italian
as they could master, and set to try cases in
which Greek and Arabic witnesses and papers
contained the evidence, must have felt, and
must still feel, that " ignorance is not bliss " in
their case. They must frequently imitate that
energetic American judge, who, not being able
to find the law requisite for making a just
decision in a particular case, when asked by his
brethren on the bench where he got his law from
covering the case, responded : " Well, I made
that decision by main strength. "

So must it often be in these mixed tribunals.

The existence of these tribunals, now the

THE NEW MIXED TRIBUNALS. 113

overshadowing power in Egypt, superseding
the consular authority which used to be omni-
potent, as well as that of the Khedive, who
was once the only High Court of Appeal in
the country, but who now is (at least nominally)
amenable to their jurisdiction, is due to Nubar
Pacha. More than twenty years ago, in the
reign of Sa'id, he sought to persuade the consuls-
general to divest themselves of their judicial
powers, by consenting to the establishment of
some such scheme. But neither the country
nor the time was ripe for it ; and year after year,
with dogged patience and inexhaustible resource,
under different administrations, he persevered
until his efforts were crowned with success.
But by a strange fatality he was " hoist by his
own petard." His unforgiven sin with his
monarch is, that in tying the hands of the
European diplomatic agents, and submitting
all judicial decisions to what is practically an
Egyptian tribunal, whose judges are paid out
of the Egyptian treasury, he at the same
time threw meshes around the Khedive, and
imperilled if he did not destroy his sovereign
prerogative. For the tribunal has affirmed its
right to sit in judgment on the Egyptian Master
of Legions, and decree against him, although
declining to go through the form of insisting
on enforcing judgments, for which it has not

114 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

been put in possession of adequate means.
Hence the anomalous and awkward position the
two reciprocally occupy, vis-a-vis to each other.
Under the old system — based on the doctrine
of " Exterritoriality," which gave authority
over the foreigner exclusively to the repre-
sentative of his own Government, under the
ancient capitulations — the consular courts exer-
cised the power of pronouncing judgment, in
contests between their own subjects and those
of other nationalities, including the natives.
Through the powerful pressure of their own per-
sonal influence on the Egyptian ministers and
the head of the State, they enforced justice for
their people. That power and right foreign
governments have abdicated (at least for a term
of five years, two of which have expired), and
it remains to be proven by experience whether
the substitute is a good and sufficient one.

It has certainly succeeded in clearing off much
rubbish, in the shape of old reclamations against
the Government, sitting as a court of claims,
for which the Khedive should be grateful. It
has also given the " happy despatch " to the
multitudinous bankrupts, by a speedy and simple
system of relief, in place of the complicated
ones previously existing in consular courts,
no two of which agreed ; and for this the foreign
colony, which has had very bad affairs ever

OLD DOCTEINE OF EXTERRITORIALITY. 115

since the close of the American war, which
induced over-speculation and ruin, should be
duly thankful. These two kinds of work, I
believe, constitute thus far the bulk of business
done, except the settlement of small claims.

The intervention of the tribunal in matters
directly connected with the Khedive and his
creditors, has not been either as successful or
as satisfactory as in the two other matters, either
to the Khedive : the judge (Haakmann) who
pronounced judgment and tried to enforce it,
and was compelled to resign in consequence :
or finally to the creditors of the Khedive who,
believing they had been presented with the
oyster, have had to content themselves with
the empty shells, thus far.

But the test of time alone can show whether
the tribunals, like Marshal McMahon, can or
will be permitted to serve out their " quin-
quennate," and renew it for another term.
With the exception noted, thus far the machine,
though over- cumbrous, and enormously expen-
sive, seems to have run pretty smoothly."*

The old system also of each foreign consulate
attaching to it, as proteges, a number of native
Christian rayahs, chiefly Copts, Greeks, and
Syrians, and affording them countenance and

* In Appendix C will be found some particulars relating to these
tribunals.

116 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

protection, which used to add so much to the
power, influence, and prestige of the representa-
tives of the Great Powers, and afford so much
protection to the native Christians (though
sometimes abused), has been almost if not
entirely done away with under the new regime,
to the great regret and loss of the class who
used to be thus protected. The alleged evils
of the old system I believe to have been
greatly exaggerated, though there were some
notorious cases of abuse of the privilege : as
there must ever be when discretionary power is
confided to incompetent or venal hands, and
consuls-general must be supposed to vary as
much in character and capacity, as all other
public functionaries.

CHAPTEE VIII.

THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Divisions of Modern Egypt : Lower Egypt, Middle Egypt, and Upper
Egypt — The Soudan — Chief exports — Facts and figures— Popula-
tion and mortality — Difficulties and drawbacks native rulers
must contend against — Smelfungus at Cairo — His sources of
information — An appeal for justice on behalf of the new masters
of the " House of bondage " — Said Pacha's sad experience with his
model villages — The new foreign employes — The Government
more generous than just in some respects.

ACCOEDING to Caesar's " Commentaries," all Gaul
"was divided into three parts." So is Egypt,
viz., into Lower Egypt, or the Delta, contain-
ing 2,650,563 feddans (acres) of land under
cultivation, ninety-two towns and cities, and
2253 villages or communes; Middle Egypt,
containing 827,616 feddans of land, six towns
and cities, and 114 villages; Upper Egypt
containing 1,146,041 feddans of land, fifteen
towns and cities, and 658 villages ; making a
total of 4,624,221 feddans of land under cultiva-
tion, 113 towns and cities, and 658 villages or
townships.

118 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Besides Egypt proper are the provinces of
Massawa, Souakim, and Taka, on the coast of
the Eed Sea, and that vast province termed the
Soudan.

It is claimed that in the last fifteen years
not less than 500,000 acres have heen reclaimed
for cultivation from the desert, heing an average
of over 70,000 acres per year added to the
cultivated area of Egypt : and that 300,000 more
are in process of preparation under the canal
improvements instituted by the Khedive ; for,
in Egypt, the desert may he made "to blossom
as the rose " by the application of water only.
The Central African annexations, under Gordon
and his subordinates, bid fair to double Egypt's
area and population.

The chief exports of Egypt are cotton, sugar,
and grain. Cotton, the culture of which was
only introduced in 1820 by a Frenchman named
Jumel, is now produced to the annual amount
of about 600,000 bales, and furnishes Europe
with one-eighth of its entire supply — four-fifths
going to England. Sugar comes next ; the largest
portion of which is exported to France, the
next to England. Then come the cereals, the
greatest portion of which goes to England also,
in the proportion of ten to one to any other
country.

Egyptian statesmen remark, with just pride,

A FEW FACTS AND FIGUKES. 119

that their country, more populous in proportion
than any country in Europe, is yet able to supply
the inhabitants by her products, leaving an
immense surplus for exportation ; and they also
refer to the fact that her exports are double her
imports— £14,000,000 in value to £7,000,000.
Certainly a most satisfactory state of things,
and indicative of prosperity. Much of this is
due to the indefatigable efforts of the Khedive,
who was a most successful and enterprising planter
before he became Khedive, and whose expendi-
ture in improving machinery and agricultural
appliances has been on a scale as gigantic as his
planting interest.

Not to pile up here too many statistics, which
are very dry reading, I shall add only a few
figures which are curious and instructive, and
then pass on to other topics. The number of
domestic animals in Egypt (not including the
mummied specimens in the bull, crocodile, and
other pits, at Memphis and elsewhere), are esti-
mated at about 300,000 horned cattle, 20,000
horses, 94,000 asses, 36,000 camels, and 2500
mules ; of sheep there are 175,000, goats
24,000.

During the year 1872 (the year of the
rinderpest)* 14,000 head of cattle and 200,000

* The horse disease broke out again at Cairo and the upper country
in the autumn of 1876-77, supposed to have been imported from
Abyssinia.

120 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

sheep were imported into Alexandria for food.
The average price of cattle at the great annual
fairs at Tantah and elsewhere is double that of
horses, and the same as that of camels. The
land-tax of Egypt anually rises to upwards of
£4,500,000, that tax being about £1 per feddan
(acre). The date palrn is one of the great
sources of the food of the country-folk, and
about ,£200,000 per annum is derived from taxes
upon its fruit. It is estimated that there are
over 5,000,000 of date trees in Egypt of different
varieties, producing about 20,000,000 cantars
(cwt.) of fruit each season. The cactus is also
cultivated on a large scale, and its pears eaten.

With regard to Egypt's new acquisitions in
Central Africa, when the geographical position,
fertile soil, and products of the Nile basin are
considered, their value to Egypt and to European
commerce may be understood ; but the exact
amount of that value depends on the uses to
which its fertile soil and teeming population
may be put. Its first effect has been to divert
to Egypt the produce of the Nile basin through
her great artery the Nile, reviving the trade of
Cairo and Alexandria. When the railway com-
munication is completed, penetrating far into
the Soudan, that trade must be diverted from
Zanzibar and the Red Sea ports to its natural
outlets. With so vast an area of fertile soil,

POPULATION AND MOKTALITY. 121

and such a teeming population, rich in flocks,
herds, and grain, and the natural products of
Africa, hitherto the spoil of native traders and
slave-dealers (synonymous terms), the experi-
ment can and will be tried on the largest scale ;
and Gordon Pacha is in earnest in his efforts
to suppress the traffic of man in man, which
makes Equatorial Africa a waste and a Pan-
demonium.

Egypt proper (not including its recent acqui-
sitions in Central Africa, which have doubled
its area and population) was, in 1872, about
as large as Belgium, while its population was
greater than that of that country, so prosperous
and comparatively populous; as well as of that of
Sweden, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, and Nor-
way— the density of the Egyptian population
exceeding any of these.

The population of Cairo is near 500,000, that
of Alexandria about 215,000 ; and, in despite of
the popular idea as to the health of Egypt (as
the tables of mortality of its great cities, care-
fully collected and published by the present
Government, show), the mortality, except during
the prevalence of epidemics — now becoming
more rare and almost disappearing — will com-
pare favourably with that of European cities.
The vast improvements made and making in
Cairo, in Haussmannizing the old town, must

122 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

also increase its healthiness, though the climate
is too enervating to suit European children.
You see many people in the streets presenting
the appearance of great age : but whether they
are as old as they look I cannot say : for every-
thing seems so precocious in this country, where
girls of ten and boys of fifteen are marriageable
and married.

As to the mortality among the rural popula-
tion (or fellahs) it is exceptionally small, proving
that neither their condition nor their labour can
be quite so bad or so heavy as sentimental
travellers would persuade us : while their natural
increase is very great, another proof of at least
comparative physical well-being. Under the
two last rulers the condition of the peasantry
has been improved; they have been not only
permitted, but encouraged to become land-
owners ; and the subdivision of property has
commenced, which must increase with each
year. The stories of forced labour and forcible
recruiting, and cruelty to the fellahs by the
Government employes (who, by the way, are not
Turks, but men of their own race, often their
own fellow- villagers), I am told by old residents,
and myself believe, to be partly exaggerated :
although I do not doubt that the system is radi-
cally bad, and that there is immense room for
improvement, both in the condition and treat-

SMELFUNGUS AT CAIEO. 123

ment of the fellahs ; nor that acts of hardship
and cruelty are frequently perpetrated hy the
ignorant and often brutal agents of the Khedive
or his Government, on the persons and property
of his subjects. Travellers' stories, however,
must be taken with many grains of allowance,
owing not only to their lack of knowledge as to
the character and customs of this most peculiar
people, but also to their ignorance of the lan-
guage, and the darkened medium of the drago-
men through which both reach them ; the crass
ignorance of most of these blind guides being
only surpassed by their mendacity and desire to
astonish or shock the "Howadji" under their
charge.

I have often listened to conversations at
Shepheard's table d'hote, from the returned Nile
pilgrim, who had supped on the dragomanic
stories, and it has reminded me more of the
wonderful discoveries of French tourists in
London as to the manners and customs of the
English, which we find still circulated and swal-
lowed across the Channel, than any other narra-
tives of travel within my knowledge. Then, too,,
there is Smelfungus, who was met by Sterne
during his sentimental journey, "who travelled
from Dan to Beersheba, and found everything
barren." I am quite sure I have met him in
Egypt, not once but repeatedly. Only last

124 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

winter, at Cairo, he sat near me at table d'hote,
and I am satisfied lie must be the same man.
Loud of voice, arrogant in manner, big, burly,
consequential, and surly, he seemed to occupy
two places at table, and the growling thunder of
his voice drowned the more subdued sound of
conversation for some distance in his vicinity.
Sitting very near him at table were two of the
native employes, easily distinguishable by their
swarthy faces, straight-collared Stambouli coats,
and red fez tarbouches of the Government regu-
lation colour. Their presence seemed only to
stimulate Smelfungus, who loudly abused the
country and the Government, and described in
harrowing terms the treatment of the fellah men
and women by the pampered officials, and by
order of the Khedive — relating instances of
cruelty and oppression, as the rule and not the
exception, which, if universal, would make Satan
himself the only possible counsellor to the Khe-
dive. What impression as to Frank courtesy
and credulity Smelfungus produced on his un-
moved Egyptian auditors, whose appetite his
diatribes did not disturb, and who apparently
took no notice of speeches they could not fail to
hear, the reader can judge as well as I.

It is indeed a great pity that Smelfungus and
his class could not be kept at home by parlia-
mentary enactment ; for they are petty instru-

EGYPTIAN "HORKOKS." 125

ments of mighty mischief, in exciting national
dislikes and magnifying misrepresentations.
But free countries cannot take the precautions
which despotisms may ; and which Eussia did for
many years, according to general belief.

Hence, when any " Egyptian horrors " are
put in current circulation, it is well to see if
Smelfungus, inspired by his dragoman, be not
their author.

No government or population ever yet was
improved by angry vituperation, or by " clothing
them in curses as with a garment ; " and
righteous indignation subjects itself to suspicion
when it deals in vague generalities of accusation,
and does not discriminate between cases that
are universal, and those which are exceptional.

I am no apologist either for the shortcomings
or the sins of Egyptian administration in the
interior : nor for the treatment to which the
fellah population has been — and is, I fear, still —
subjected by an arbitrary, arrogant, and irrespon-
sible set of taskmasters and tax-gatherers, armed
with almost absolute authority. Even to the
heads of State themselves I have not hesitated
to point out, nor (I must do justice to them)
have those rulers, in response, frequently failed
to admit and deplore, while declaring their
inability to remove, the grievous burdens born
by the fellahs in many ways, and the necessity

126 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

of improving their mental, physical, and social
condition. Both Said and Ismail have grappled
with this evil, and have been met with the
irresistible opposition of the terrible vis inertice
of Oriental apathy and fatalism — that dumb
stupidity, against which Schiller says " even the
Gods are powerless " — as well as by the corruption
and cruelty of subordinate officials.

Attempting to ameliorate the lot of the
peasant, Said Pacha caused model villages to be
constructed, with clean and comfortable dwell-
ings, and, pulling down the fellah mud huts,
transported the families to their new homes.
Eighteen months after, I inquired how his model
village was thriving.

" You will oblige me, the next time you pass
on your way to Cairo, to stop and see ! " was his
reply.

I did so, and found that the model houses had
been deserted, and were rapidly falling to ruin,
while, like sugar-loaf ant-hills, on the outer circle
were again grouped the mud huts, in all their
primitive dirt and discomfort, with their fowls
and filth and prowling dogs : into which the
villagers, with their swarming families, had
squatted down. Against ignorance and pre-
judices well-nigh invincible, the fight is a hard
one ; and when you reflect that similar igno-
rance and barbarism prevails throughout the

MOKE GENEROUS THAN JUST. 127

whole country, and embraces all classes — except
a very small circle in the cities and surrounding
the Court — the difficulties of the administration
may be comprehended, and allowances made for
shortcomings.

The substitution of the foreign in place of
the native official, as the means of improve-
ment and better government in the interior,
thus far has not proved a success : as the long
roll of that " noble army of martyrs," the
African explorers, from Livingstone to Muzinger
Pacha proves. The path of exploration and
of civilization into Central Africa, like that
across the desert, may be traced by the bones
of the pioneers who have perished along the
route.

In the great Government centres, however,
of Alexandria and Cairo it has worked well,
although the selection of these foreign officials
has not always been made with great judgment,
nor has the state of the Egyptian exchequer
been consulted as to their salaries and emolu-
ments. While men of such eminent adminis-
trative and executive capacity as McKillop
Pacha, of the British navy (long in the Egyptian
service, and of incalculable value to the Khedive
in many ways), receive the most inadequate
salaries, many of the recent importations, who
possess neither a tithe of his abilities nor ex-

128 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

perience of the country, receive four times the
pay for not one-fourth of the work which he
does so thoroughly and indefatigably. I have
never heard him utter a syllable of complaint — he
is too proud a man for that — but the facts have
fallen within my own knowledge, and I cite his
case simply as an illustration of a general truth ;
applicable also to many of the ablest and oldest
of foreign officials in Egypt : but without mean-
ing to cast any reflection on the new-comers,
several of whom are undoubtedly most efficient
and useful public officers.

It is certainly but just that the salaries of
officials, transplanted there from England or
France, should be greatly increased, perhaps
doubled, in view of the probable increase of
expense in living (enormously high in Egypt), as
well as of the interruption of their former
business relations. But it really does not seem
just, either to the old officials and employes, or to
the " gentleman in difficulties" to whose relief
they are called, that many of the higher officials
should receive the salary of British ministers
of State ! and that clerks should be paid in
pounds what they got in crowns in England —
from whence almost all these new employes are
drawn, with only enough of Frenchmen to serve
as a seasoning.

If charity begins at home, so should economy ;

THE NEW FOKEIGN EMPLOYES. 129

and however great the savings effected by the
new administrators may be — and in some in-
stances, as in the post-office and the customs
administrations, they have been considerable —
they will profit the Khedive or his creditors bnt
little, if they are swallowed up in the expenses of
the machinery employed in their production.

Sitting at Shepheard's table d'hote one day, I
saw six of these new employes side by side, whose
collective salaries amounted to more than £20,000
per annum, and but four out of the six held high
positions : the other two being merely clerks in
departments. Many of these gentlemen, doubt-
less very capable at home, verify the truth of
Lord Bacon's axiom, that " he that goeth abroad
without understanding the language goeth to
school, and not to travel." For how people, to
whom the old records and papers relating to new
transactions, are literally " sealed books," being
in Arabic, can possibly either comprehend, audit,
or check accounts, I confess puzzles me ; for the
interpreter — again to cite Lord Bacon — " having
his hand full, truth may choose but to open his
little finger." This fact accounts for much of
the confusion in Egyptian accounts.

These comments are made in no invidious or
hostile spirit towards the new employes, most
of whom I do not know, and several who are
known personally to me inspiring me with most

130 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

friendly feelings. But the truth should be told ;
and when outcries against the Khedive's expen-
sive administration of public affairs are so loudly
made, it is but just that some of the leaks should
be shown to proceed from other causes than
his own personal extravagancies. The ordinary
Egyptian official, whether foreign or native, has
hitherto been so insufficiently and irregularly
paid, that this contrast seems all the more
striking ; and hence I have placed my finger
as gently as I could upon this very tender
spot.*

Several of the gentlemen personally interested,
with a candour that did them honour, frankly
admitted to me the justice of the complaint in
this regard made by the old employes; but
naturally were not quixotic enough to propose
a reduction in the emoluments, with which
they had been so liberally endowed by the
Egyptian Government, out of its almost empty
chests.

One of the greatest difficulties in the trans-
action of bureau or official business of any kind
is the immense number of holidays claimed, and
granted to employes in all the Government
bureaux, which exasperate and annoy all foreign
officials, and retard the progress of business : but
which, owing to the number of fasts and feasts

* See Appendix C.

EGYPTIAN FASTS AND FEASTS. 131

in the Mohammedan calendar, it seems im-
possible to diminish.

The fasts and feasts and holidays of the
Greek, Latin, and Coptic rayahs (or native
Christians) are fully as numerous and as
punctiliously observed as those of the Mussul-
men; and the accountants and subordinate
employes in the different divans are taken
largely from this class — there being really no
Turks in Egypt, and the native Egyptians not
being over fond of clerical or office duties.
The latter however act as the heads of divans,
with the intention of doing everything by proxy,
and as little as possible personally. Thus, with
both head and hands equally willing to be idle,
this irritating interposition of newly arrived and
zealous strangers can effect but little.

During these holiday times the Government
officers and officials do no manner of work that
is not absolutely essential, and the recurrence of
these vacations is vexatious to the European
heads of bureaux, who see at least two months
in every year lost through them ; not including
the thirty days' fast of Eamazan, when all
Mussulman Egypt is awake all night, and asleep,
or half asleep, all day — making three. This is
one of the ingrained old customs, which even
Khedive Ismail, absolute as he is supposed to be,
has contended against in vain ; striving to limit

132 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

and reduce these very liberal vacations so con-
stantly recurring. But custom, which in the
East is stronger, not only than law, but even
than kings, will not be changed; and Egyptian
employes, who benefit by these leisure days,
from high to low, stickle for their perpetuation,
and evade — when they do not dare openly to
disobey — higher orders to the contrary.

Against any active opposition the Khedive's
fiat is omnipotent ; but against old customs,
prejudices, and habits, stronger than any written
law and more religiously followed, even his
energy and efforts strike as vainly as a cannon
ball directed against a floating silk banner, whose
non-resistance is the secret of its remaining
unimpressed by the force directed against it.

Time, education, and improvement may finally
counteract the causes enumerated; but it will
require the united efforts of the three to make
Egypt like unto Europe.

Let us then give both the Khedive, and his
new assistants from abroad, the benefit of good
intentions and well-directed efforts ; even though
the progress actually made, in the way of
practical and perceptible reform in the different
administrations, does not seem very perceptible
as yet, and though the performance falls very far
short of the swelling programme : put forth in
the hope of regaining the lost confidence of

PEOGEAMME AND PEEFOEMANCE. 133

Europe, both as to the Khedive's promises of
reform, and his promise to pay. The first steps
in the right direction have been taken, and, with
patience, the goal may be reached at last.

134 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTER IX.

HELOUAN.

An Aix les Bains in the desert — What and where is Helouan ? — On
the road to it — The grand boulevard to the citadel — Glimpses
of interiors en route — The Mokattam Hills — Their quarries —
Through the desert, in view of the Pyramids — Appearance of Helouan
— Its sights and smells — The sulphur baths — The hotel — The view
from its roof — An enthusiastic collector of antiques.

SITTING on Shepheard's balcony at Cairo, one
soft spring morning this year, the idea struck
us to visit the sulphur springs and baths of
Helouan : one of the modern improvements
undertaken and carried out by the Khedive, at
his own expense, for the benefit of all native and
foreign sufferers from rheumatic or kindred
maladies. The existence of hot sulphur springs
at Helouan, about fourteen miles from Cairo, had
been known a long time ; but the merit of
utilizing them, and creating a species of Aix les
Bains in the desert, is due to Ismail Pacha :
who not only established baths there of a most

AIX LES BAINS IN THE DESEKT. 135

substantial description, but caused a fine spacious
hotel to be constructed as well, placed a German
manager and doctor in charge of it, and en-
couraged the creation of a little village in the
vicinity, presenting building lots to all persons
who would erect upon them dwelling-houses
of an inexpensive description. He also caused
to be built a palace for his mother, by way of
example, and the little bathing-place has become
quite the fashion already. So much so that
visitors from Cairo have often to wait a week or
two, to secure accommodation at the hotel
during the winter season. When the great heats
come on, I believe the hotel is closed, though
the owners of the houses at Helouan pass the
entire summer there ; the dry air of the desert
suiting some constitutions, and the nights being
always endurable, from the winds which ever
sweep across the empty waste of desert sand
which surrounds the springs, which form an oasis
in the solitude.

Since the opening of a railway line to
Helouan, access to it is easy, several times daily;
but until very recently the only way of reaching
it was by donkey or by carriage, both of which
modes of conveyance were slow and tedious, in
consequence of the heavy sand over which the
route lay. Now it is only a matter of an hour
from the station, which is immediately below the

136 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

citadel — that sleepless watchman over the city
which lies nestling at its feet; and wherein
grim old Mehemet Ali enacted that stern
tragedy, which removed at once and for ever
from- his path the only stumbling-block to his
direct march to the throne of Egypt, by the
massacre of the Mamelukes. The spot where
the last survivor of that savage soldiery, dying
like wolves caught in a trap, leaped his horse
over the wall, and rose living from the dead
body of his steed, to be pardoned subsequently
by Mehemet Ali, is still shown the stranger ;
and very near that historic site you see the
small railway station, which speaks eloquently
of the change that has passed over Egypt during
that interval — the reign of slaughter and
treachery having been succeeded by the more
peaceful progress of civilizing agencies, the
cannon by the railway.

But let us start from the hotel, either on one
of the knock-kneed little donkeys, which still
swarm around Shepheard's steps as of old, and
make both day and night vocal with the " long
dry seesaw of their horrible bray;" or in one
of the street carriages, since all the European
capitals seem recently to have spawned their
most rickety and disabled vehicles on the " city
of victory," drawn by animals modelled on Don
Quixotte's Eosinante, whose blood may be

THE CITADEL BOULEVARD. 137

dubious, but whose bones are irrepressible and
stare you in the face.

Often, looking on these, the real "lean kine "
of modern Egypt, is the traveller reminded of
that remarkable animal described by Mr. Weller,
which when put in stiff shafts and driven down-
hill went admirably, because too weak to stop.
Mounting one of these dilapidated vehicles, our
"party of four (of whom two were ladies) drove
along the Ezbekieh Gardens — which French
taste has now enclosed, clipped, pruned, and
trimmed into the likeness of a miniature Bois
de Boulogne — down through the Mooskie (both
of which have already been described), until we
reached the road to the citadel.

Formerly the route to the citadel was one
of the most winding and tortuous in all Cairo,
corkscrewing through the bazaars and the
narrow streets leading out of the Mooskie, or
quarter of European shops, and compelling a
detour as picturesque as it was provoking to
people pressed for time. But the spirit of
Haussmann has seemingly descended on the
Khedive, who, possessing the power as well
as the inclination, has on a smaller scale
followed in the footsteps of the French leveller.
For not only here, but in other quarters of the
old city, broad open boulevards, as wide as the
French, have been cut straight through the old

138 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

houses, with a most ruthless disregard for the
prejudices or the prayers of the old house-
holders, who loathe light, air, and sunshine, as
well as publicity, as much as they do " plague,
pestilence, and famine ; " even although in-
demnity is given or promised them for all
demolition or damage to their premises. Nor
are they entirely without reasonable excuse for
grumbling at this arbitrary and compulsory
change in their " ancient ways," narrow, damp,
dirty, and gloomy as they seemed to the
stranger. For here, where the sun gives more
than enough of heat and glare from his rise to
his setting, shade and coolness, alone attainable
in narrow streets with but a small slit of sky
visible between the projecting housetops above,
are the chief wants of the residents, and it is
questionable whether what is a real improve-
ment at Paris, may ultimately prove so at Grand
Cairo.

Already, waiving the practical features of the
matter, the sentimental traveller has broken
into objurgations on the modern Pharaoh, who
has hardened his heart against the picturesque,
and ruthlessly torn down the crumbling old mud
houses, with their latticed wooden windows,
through which peered the bright eyes of
Egyptian Fatimas and Zuleikas — " making a
hideous modern boulevard out of these once

VIEWS OF INTERIORS EN ROUTE. 139

Oriental streets, where one might admire the
few remaining specimens of Saracenic architec-
ture ! " as one of the latest pilgrims pathetically
remarks.

But unluckily the " specimens " referred to
never were " Saracenic," nor at all resembling
it, but purely Arabic, and barbarous Arabic at
best ; and so much more of the same style still
is left in Cairo, that a little more of it might
still be spared to the ruthless hammer of im-
provement.

The broad open road, leading in a straight
line to the massive pile of citadel buildings
which crown the hill, back of which towers
the frowning and rugged chain of the Mokattam
Hills, on the desert edge, is finished and in
tolerably good condition. But with the usual
careless way of doing things in the East, the
demolitions on each side of the roadway have
been but partially completed, or never repaired,
in most cases, by the erection of new outer
walls. So you pass through what looks like a
city that has recently been shelled — houses in
all stages of dilapidation, though still inhabited,
giving most odd views of domestic interiors,
frowning down upon you ; while not even a
screen, much less a wall, has been placed
between the dilapidation and the street.

As the plan of most of these old houses seems

140 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

to have been modelled on that of a rabbit
warren, from the multiplicity and perplexity of
burrowing-places in them, this unveiling of the
interiors, originally designed to be so private,
gives odd glimpses into the inner life of the
Cairenes ; whose ideas of comfort puzzle us as
badly as those of the disinterred Pompeians,
judging from their homes.

We left the railway station at mid-day, and
almost immediately found ourselves on the
desert, though not a desert of billowy sand (as
fancy ever pictures a desert to be), but one of
hard gritty soil, on which however neither
grass, shrub, nor tree was growing. On our right
hand as we proceeded was a distant view of the
Nile, and of the Pyramids ; on the left towered
up, apparently not half a mile distant, the rugged
masses of the Mokattam Hills — huge quarries
of stone, from whose embowelled entrails had
already been drawn much of the building material
of Cairo, and from which new drains were now
being made afresh, to gratify the Khedive's con-
structive propensities. For, as he frankly said to
the writer of these sketches but two years ago,
" All men have their manias ; mine is in stone "
• — " J'ai une manie en pierre" to use his own
words ; for he converses in French, not in
English, not understanding the latter language.

We could see the square openings in the hill-

THE MOEATTAM HILLS AND THE DESERT. 141

sides made for the excavations, presenting the
appearance of caverns for the habitations of
hermits, such as you see scooped out of the hill-
sides in Palestine, near the rock convent of
Marssaba, not far from the Jordan and the Dead
Sea ; and this impression is heightened by the
desolation of the surrounding landscape, where
you see neither bird, nor beast, nor form of man,
his habitations or his works, for mile after mile.
Sometimes the sharp silhouettes of a long line
of laden camels are defined against the hills or
the horizon ; the gaunt weird outlines of these
ungainly animals, led by the Arab driver en-
veloped in his grey abba, or cloak, with striped
silken bornous on his head, giving a pictorial
look to the desolate and dreary scene. For even
the vulture seems unable to pick up a living on
these wastes-, and does not hover over them.
The camels and the ungainly oxen enjoy the
monopoly ; and they are employed in the labour
of hauling the stone from the quarries.

Over this waste of wilderness beats down the
fierce flaming sun of Egypt, flooding earth, air,
and sky with a golden glare, almost intolerable
to the eye, unrelieved by glimpse of verdure or
of water, except at very rare intervals, where
a little strip of green may be seen bordering a
well or fountain on the route ; and sometimes
you catch glimpses of the silvery and flashing

142 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

current of the Nile, with, the fringe of verdure
on its banks ; while, pointing heavenwards with
their sharp cones, the eternal Pyramids loom up
ever in the distance, with nothing to obstruct
the view of their towering proportions.

But the glare, the heat, and the dust became
so overpowering, after half an hour of this mid-
day ride through the desert, that we were com-
pelled perforce to shut out the view, which was
becoming monotonous, by closing the curtains
of our railway carriage ; and creating smoke-
clouds by puffing cigarettes of genuine Stambouli
or Turkish tobacco, the soothing effect of which
we soon experienced.

The transit from the station at Cairo to the
station at Helouan occupies about an hour.
Shortly before reaching the latter, we opened
the windows and curtains of our carriage, to let
out the smoke, and take another view of the
surrounding scenery. On our left hand now it
was all desert, unrelieved by the hills which we
had left far behind. On the right still loomed
up the Pyramids, but Father Nile had become
invisible. In front we saw a long, low, irregular
pile of buildings of considerable extent, enclosed
in high walls which might conceal gardens.
This, we were told, was the palace of the
Khedive's mother, to which she occasionally
came; and at long intervals the great man

AKKIVAL AT HELOUAN. 143

himself honoured Helonan with his presence ;
when his. courtiers thronged there after him,
and gave life and animation to that ordinarily
quiet place, whose hotel and scattered houses we
could now discern and were rapidly approaching.
The station is not more than 100 yards from the
hotel, yet so averse are people here, hoth native
and foreign, to pedestrian feats that an omnibus
was in readiness to convey us that short distance.
Eesenting the imputation conveyed on our
energy and activity by such a proffer, we declined
the accommodation ; and strolled leisurely along
over the desert sand towards the town and hotel,
the latter of which presented quite an imposing
appearance, contrasted with the small houses
scattered around it, most of which appeared
to have been rapidly run up on the Aladdin
plan, in a single night, to present a proper
appearance of a town to the visitor. An over-
powering atmosphere of newness pervaded
everything, which in this country of ruins and
recollections seemed strangely incongruous.
Sarah's unexpected and unhoped-for child
hardly appeared more exceptional, than a brand-
new and growing village, on the modern plan,
seems to the traveller in old Egypt. Yet here
was one the youthful appearance of which
might have done honour to an American
backwoods settlement, six months after the

144 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

first tree had been cut down by the earliest
pioneers from "the coast," except that there
never having been any trees here, there could
be of necessity no " stumps," the characteristic
feature of the new settlement in America. For
whereas the American pioneer regards the
tree as his natural enemy, to be removed as
a nuisance ; here the first care is to set out a
young plantation for shade and as a screen from
dust ; and around each house at Helouan the
occupant had carefully set out such trees as
could be procured in this treeless country, whose
greatest want is the want of wood. Dickens, in
his "American Notes," records the astonishment
with which he beheld a baby in one of the
Western cities, which seemed too newly built
to have afforded time for a baby to be born ;
and we were reminded of his astonishment here,
on seeing a woman with a baby in her arms,
which really looked older than the town — if by
courtesy we may designate by that title the
fifteen or twenty buildings which constitute
" Helouan les Bains," as the large placards
posted up all over Cairo somewhat pompously
denominate it.

So rapid, however, is the growth of vegetation
under the Egyptian sun — even on the desert
sands wherever water can be supplied — that
already several of the houses were gracefully

AT HELOUAN LES BAINS. 145

decorated with climbing creepers even to the
roof, and the gardens were .already blooming
with tropical flowers and grass, giving the place
the aspect of an oasis in the desert ; for all
around it, far as the eye can reach, is flat sandy
plain, unrelieved even by a hillock — the horizon
bounding it on all sides as in a sea view, and
the setting sun dipping as suddenly as he does
over the waste of waters when seen from ship-
board. We proceeded to the hotel, which the
Khedive caused to be erected about a year ago,
when he decreed the creation of Helouan les
Bains, then alone possessing the bubbling hot
sulphur springs, which long had trickled un-
noticed over the sands, whose curative virtues
the Khedive appreciated as soon as they were
explained to him, and thus sought to utilize,
as an additional attraction to the foreign
visitors, who annually contribute so much to
the life of Cairo and the pockets of its landlords
and shopkeepers, foreign and native.

The hotel is a large square building, with an
open court in the centre filled with flowers and
shrubs, two stories high, with verandahs running
all around the inner square, where one can
take air and exercise during the mid- day, when
outdoor exercise would be impossible or danger-
ous. By a winding stairway you ascend to the
roof, which, as usual in the East, is flat, with

L

146 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

a parapet four feet high running all around it,
so as to make it a most pleasant lounging-place
when the sun has set, and until midnight under
these clear, bright, and starry skies.

The rooms are all so large and airy that the
hotel cannot accommodate comfortably nearly
so many persons as its apparent size would
indicate: I believe not more than fifty at a time.

Its present manager is really " a host in him-
self," being a Greek formerly engaged in mer-
cantile pursuits, which he has renounced for an
enthusiastic love of antiquities, to the collection
of which he devotes all his spare time, and
Egyptian coins of modern stamp. His collection
is already a large and excellent one, and every
day adds to its extent and value ; for the central
position of Helouan between the two families
of Pyramids, those of Gizeh and Sakkhara, and
the long summer vacation, when there are no
travelling Howadji or foreign collectors to snap
up the " unconsidered trifles " which the fellah
or Bedouin picks up in the ruins or turns up
with his ploughshare, give the collector on the
spot immense advantages, both as to the choice
and price of antiques.

The amiable enthusiast who manages the hotel
and baths of Helouan makes the most of these
advantages, and is never wearied with exhibiting
his treasures to his guests, and explaining their

AN AMIABLE ENTHUSIAST. 147

former uses or meaning ; thus rendering a resi-
dence under his roof as instructive as it is
agreeable.

Add to this pleasant host, whose good temper
is inexhaustible, the attractions of an excellent
cuisine, and a select society of all nationalities
and all tongues, as well as the facilities for
making numerous excursions on donkeys to
the two sets of Pyramids and different interest-
ing localities in the desert, with the sulphur
baths in addition, and it is easy to understand
why many persons, who are not invalids, desert
the comparative city life of Cairo, for the repose
and fresh air of the desert.

After resting an hour in the cool shady
reading-room, well supplied with newspapers and
magazines in English, French, and German,
and divans and easy-chairs of all descriptions,
we sallied forth to see the baths, under the
guidance of one of the many medical men found
at Helouan. For really the place seems to
have attracted the medical faculty as much as
the invalids : several of the profession, German,
French, and American, having at least tempo-
rary residences here ; although the hotel and
baths have their regular medical man, attached
to the establishment and salaried by the
Khedive, to whom the whole thing as yet is
a charge, or has been until this, the second
season.

148 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

The bathing establishment is replete with
every comfort — large rooms with white marble
baths for ordinary bathers, furnished with divans
covered with chintz, on which to repose after
being steamed and sulphurized ; with the inevit-
able Eastern accompaniment of coffee and
chibouques. A separate set of bathing rooms,
with a private entrance, has been prepared and
reserved for the sole and separate use of the
Khedive and his family; and these are fitted
up and furnished ' with satin damask hangings,
and divans covered with the same rich material.
The bathing-places also are more richly and
expensively arranged than those for the use of
the public, and exclusively devoted to royal use ;
strangers being only shown through them as
one of the sights of the place. From the
moment you enter the door until you leave
the building, which is a very solid and sub-
stantial one, the penetrating odour of sulphur
assails your nostrils with a pungency that is
almost overpowering ; and you carry that most
uncelestial odour away with you, and about your
person, for a considerable time after leaving the
baths. We did not bathe, but the doctor
turned one of the spouts, and the water which
poured into the bath-tub was hot and sulphurous
enough to have bubbled up direct from Plutonian
.fountains close at hand, for a special bath for
Queen Proserpina.

THE HOT SULPHUR BATHS. 149

Several of our friends who essayed the experi-
ment of the virtues of these baths for rheumatic,
and other similar ailments, experienced great
benefit from the treatment ; while the purity of
the air, 'blowing freshly over the desert, is most
unquestionable.

The chief drawbacks to thorough enjoyment
arise from the heat and glare, which confine
most persons to the house from 10 a.m. to
6 p.m. ; but the early morning, the evening, and
the night are truly delicious, and make amends
for the temporary imprisonment during the
heated term.

If one could be pardoned the use of a " bull,"
however, in all Eastern travel or residence, save
in mid- winter, the night is always the best part
of the day, whether in a dahabeah on the Nile, in
the city, or on the desert ; for an Eastern night r
with its large and lustrous stars dispensing
almost the light of day, though softer and more
subdued than the garish daylight, with its soft,,
soothing, and balmy breezes, surpasses far the
most delightful spring day in less favoured
climes : and is the best time for exercise, enjoy-
ment, and musing. Lord Lytton's German
mystic, who lived in an imaginary life of his own
creation in dreamland, while his actual daily
life was to him as a dream, should have come to
Helouan to enjoy uninterruptedly that existence ;

150 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

since no spot in the world offers finer facilities
for it.

A short distance from the building there is
quite a large pond — used for bathing also —
of fresh water, supplied from the Nile, about a
mile distant but not perceptible from the spot
on which we stood below. This pond is much
resorted to by the small population in and
around Helouan, in the evenings and nights of
summer or spring ; so that sulphur or fresh- water
baths are equally accessible to the sojourners
here.

But it is worth coming to Helouan to get the
view from the housetop at sunset, as we did, for
it is unique of its kind, and unlike any other in
the wide wide world. Ascending to the flat
roof by a spiral stairway of iron, you stand upon
the housetop, surrounded by a stone parapet
about four feet in height, and look around you.

On every side there meets the eye the grim
grey desert, stretching away into the distance — •
a shrubless sea of sand, bounded only by the
horizon. In the distance the slight undulations,
which alone break the dead level of its surface
over which flows a thin vapoury mist of exhala-
tions from the heat, resemble the billows of
the sea ; but the restless movement of the waves
is wanting here, and the illusion is soon dis-
pelled as the spectator still gazes over this sad

VIEW FEOM THE HOUSE-TOPS. 151

scene, enlivened by the presence of no living
thing. Earth and air seem as tenantless as
though creation's dawn had not broken, and the
Creator's fiat had not yet peopled the world.

You turn and look in the opposite direction — •
and piercing the clear atmosphere with sharp
distinctness of outline, you behold at once the
sister Pyramids of Grizeh and of Sakkhara, both
visible from this point, and seemingly very near;
but if you mount your donkey, or plough through
the sand to reach either of them, you soon
find they are further off than they seem to be
through the medium of this clear atmosphere,
which is most deceptive. This is, in my judg-
ment, by far the finest view of the Pyramids
from a distance, taking in as you do at one coup
(Twit these rival monuments of man's folly; for
whether they are to be considered as royal mau-
soleums or, as later theorizers have pronounced
them, astrological erections, equally must they
be regarded as huge monuments of human folly,
in such a waste of labour, life, and wealth as
their erection must have entailed.

Straining the eye, you see a silver thread with
what seems a fringe of vegetation around it, and
after a time you catch a glimpse of the Nile ;
which is visible from where you stand, distant, I
was told, two miles. But there must be some
undulation on that side, for it was not very
plainly perceptible.

152 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

This was all *that was to be seen, and
such a view might appear, from this most in-
adequate description, not to repay the trouble
of seeking it. But what gives it so bizarre and
peculiar a character is in fact indescribable ; for
it consists chiefly in the absence of what meets
the eye in all other landscapes ; for here, with
the fiery globe of the sun rushing redly down to
his rest, a globe of fire dipping down as though
into the sea, the old Scriptural malediction on
Palestine comes back vividly to the mind: " Thy
sky shall be as brass, and thy land shall be as
iron" — for of brass and iron seem both to be
composed at this place and hour.

When we reached Shepheard's Hotel on our
return from Helouan, it seemed to us that we
could fully appreciate the feelings of the wan-
derers in the wilderness on reaching Canaan.

( 153 )

CHAPTEE X.

THE KHEDIVE ISMAIL AS A PUBLIC AND A PRIVATE

MAN.

His lucky star — The accident that made him Khedive — Achmet
Pacha's closing scene — His character — A fatal fete and lucky illness
— Halim Pacha's peril and escape — What might have been but for
an open drawbridge — My early impressions of Prince Ismail — His
love for " Naboth's vineyard " — The man and the monarch, briefly
epitomized — Things he has done and things he has left undone —
His building mania.

THE Egyptians, like all other Orientals, are very
superstitious, believing strongly in luck — that
there are people born lucky and unlucky : apart
from their kismet or destiny, which they think
binds every mortal man in its iron chain from
birth to death, beyond his power of will or of
resistance. Thus the last king of the Moors in
Spain, Boabdil, during whose reign they were
expelled from that fair and beloved land, was
commonly called El Zogoybi, " the Unlucky,"
and verified the appellation.

So, until his late troubles and failures, Ismail
Pacha was regarded by his subjects as the most

154 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

lucky of human beings : and the earlier stages
of his career seemed to justify the common
belief. Even his occupation of the throne
was due to an accident, fatal to another, but
fortunate for him. Between him and the suc-
cession, after the death of Said should have
made a vacancy, there was another life — that of
his brother Achmet, a man but little older than
himself, of powerful constitution and regular
habits. Achmet was the eldest son of Ibrahim
Pacha, and the succession was his of right, under
the rule that then existed, but has since been
changed to the direct line from father to son.

Early in the year 1858, Said Pacha, then
viceroy, gave a great fete at Alexandria, to
which he sent invitations for all the members of
his family, including the sons of Ibrahim and
others residing at Cairo. Such an invitation
was equal to a command; so all accepted and
came, except Ismail, who making illness his
excuse, did not accompany them. They attended
the fete ; and the princely party, at the head of
which were Achmet and Halim, a younger and
favourite brother of Said, were assigned a special
train to convey them back to Cairo, when the
festivities were over. Their retinue was com-
posed of twenty or thirty friends and attendants.
Midway between the two cities the line of rail
passes over the Nile, at Kaffir Azzayat, where

HALIM PACHA'S PEEIL AND ESCAPE. 155

there is a famous bridge, built by Kobert
Stephenson, with a drawbridge that opens and
shuts to permit the passage of steamers or
other craft. As the train bearing its royal
freight came thundering down the slope that
leads on to this bridge, the English engineer
who drove it saw to his horror that the draw-
bridge was open, leaving a yawning space over
the deep and raging flood, full fifty feet below
— but saw the danger too late to avoid it.

The carriages, with the princes and their
train, were precipitated into the river, Prince
Halim alone escaping through his superior ac-
tivity and presence of mind ; for while the
carriages hung suspended for an instant over the
flood, he forced the door open$ called to his
nephew Achmet and the others to imitate him,
and plunged headlong into the river, as the sole
chance of escape from a dreadful death. Skilled
in all athletic sports and manly exercises,
Halim thus saved his life, swimming ashore as
soon as he rose to the surface ; but Achmet, an
awkward heavy man, did not follow his lead,
but was drowned with his companions, leaving
the succession clear for his brother Ismail, who
doubtless recognized " his star" in the whole
affair, as well as in his preservation from a
similar fate to that of his elder brother. There
was not wanting slanderous tongues at the time

156 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

to hint at the viceroy's complicity in this
dreadful casualty ; and he himself bitterly com-
plained to me that he doubted not such would be
the case, at the same time exclaiming, in the
spirit and almost in the words of Scripture, " Is
thy servant a dog to have done this thing ? " and
adding that his hope was that the presence of
his favourite brother there might screen him
from so unworthy a suspicion. From my know-
ledge of his character, as well as from inquiries
made on the spot subsequently, I am convinced
that he was innocent of all complicity in the
transaction ; which was the result of carelessness
— some might say of fatality. It is curious to
contemplate the very different state of things
that might be existing in Egypt to-day, had the
succession not been changed by this casualty,
and Achmet succeeded instead of Ismail. For
Achmet was by nature and habit one of the
most prudent and conservative of human beings
— the exact reverse of a prodigal ; in fact, accused
of avarice and inordinate love of money; ad-
dicted not to spending but to hoarding, and in
character and temper exactly the reverse of his
brother, known to us as the Khedive, who how-
ever rapidly he has contrived to fill his hands,
has managed ever to empty them quicker still.
So far did Prince Achmet carry his economies,
that he often received his foreign friends, who

CHARACTER OF PRINCE ACHMET. 157

called at his palace in the evening after dark,
by the light of no chandelier or lustres at-
tached to the walls, but in a chamber illumi-
nated by the ordinary " fanous" or glass lantern
with two candles, borne by respectable citizens
in traversing the streets by night, before patrols
were instituted at Cairo. He would have
economized the public funds, as he did his
private fortune, which was very large; but
Egypt would have stood still, not advanced,
under his reign.

Yet, in justice to him, it should be added that
he also possessed some truly princely traits to
neutralize this weakness. He was a man of
honour and of courage, most truthful and reliable
in all he said and did, devoted to agriculture,
and incapable of cruelty or dishonesty. But he
was better fitted for a private station than a
throne : and had he lived and reigned, most
probably the Suez Canal, and the other great
public works which will hereafter record the
enterprise of the Khedive Ismail, long after his
loans and the Egyptian debt have been for-
gotten, would never have been Egypt's dowry
in her bridal with Europe.

Heir presumptive through this casualty,
Ismail now bided his time, devoting himself to
agricultural pursuits, shunning publicity through
fear of inspiring Said's jealousy, and acquiring

158 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

real estate — one of his passions — ointil he became
perhaps the largest landed proprietor in Egypt.
In addition to his own large hereditary proper-
ties, he has absorbed those of his brothers and
cousins ; and several of the loans which now
figure in Mr. Cave's report, were contracted for
such purchases before or since his accession to
the throne.

During that period I used to visit the prince
at his palace at Cairo, and found him a most
polished and courteous gentleman, fond of con-
versing on his European experiences of travel, in
French, which he spoke with perfect ease and
fluency, and producing the impression that he
was an amiable but not very able man. He
certainly played Brutus well while his Caesar
lived ; for even his intimates had no conception
of the hidden energy and grasping ambition
which that smooth manner and guarded speech
concealed. Said himself certainly had not formed
a fair or a just estimate of his probable successor,
whom he could not conciliate, but who kept aloof
from the Court which that merry monarch
assembled around him after the accident which
opened the way for him, and which probably he
regarded as a premeditated trap set for himself
and kinsmen — a suspicion which his knowledge
of Said's character should have dispelled.

So anxious was Ismail to learn, and the cour-

AN EGYPTIAN THICK ON AN ENGLISH SUPERIOR 159

tiers to communicate, the tidings of the last
breath drawn by the dying man whose waning
shadow still filled the almost vacant throne, that
a high official, the head of the telegraph line
(an Englishman), sat all night by the side of the
telegraph operator, to send the news by lightning
to the coming ruler, the moment life had left the
body of the old one.

But Said, with his powerful organization, died
slowly, and taxed the patience of the watchers.
So the high official, tired out at last after several
sleepless nights, summoned a trusted native
clerk in the office, whom he believed to be faithful
and devoted to him personally, and charged him
to come immediately to his house and awaken
him, should the news come during his absence,
promising him a handsome backsheesh for
his services. He then went home to snatch a
little sleep. But the astute clerk, knowing as
well as his master the custom of the country,
which conferred rank and gold to the first bearer
of such tidings to a new viceroy, when the
news did come, during his employer's slumbers,
hastened to take it himself to Ismail, and
received at once the anticipated promotion and
reward. Then, with the malicious cunning and
avarice of his class, further to outwit the con-
fiding Frank, he hurried away to awaken him
and impart the news, without saying a word

160 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

as to the use he had already made of it. Full of
hope and joy, the official hastened to the palace
of Ismail with the glad tidings ; but, to his infinite
astonishment and disgust, was contemptuously
dismissed without reward as the hearer of stale
tidings, and left to reflect on the perfidy of native
clerks, and the necessity of keeping very wide-
awake in Egypt. The perfidious clerk is now a
pacha ; his betrayed employer yet a bey.

The accession of Ismail Pacha took place
early in January, 1863, and the educational pro-
gress during that period has been truly remark-
able, and would be so considered in any country
of the globe. At the time of Mehemet Ali there
were but 6000 children receiving public instruc-
tion. During the first six years of the reign of
the Khedive the number had increased to 60,000,
a portion of the credit for which is due to Said
Pacha, his predecessor. In 1873 the figure
attained was almost 90,000, and at this time it
doubtless exceeds 100,000.

One of the greatest difficulties in educating
this people has arisen from the peculiar social
and domestic system prevailing in the country,
which renders access to the female children
(except those of the very poor, or fellahs) almost
impossible. Thus, of the 90,000 pupils in the
primary schools, but 3000 are girls — chiefly, if
not entirely, the children of Christian parents,

FIRST EASTERN SCHOOL FOR WOMEN. 161

foreign and native. But the indefatigable Khe-
dive has grappled with the difficulty. He has
instituted at Cairo, on a liberal scale (in the
name of one of his wives), the first school for
women ever known in the Ottoman Empire : and
various others also have since been established
elsewhere in Egypt for female education. He
has gone deeper, and established schools for the
female children of the fellahs, or agricultural
labourers, in the hope of elevating the social,
moral, and intellectual condition of this large
class of the labouring population, whose past
and present lot has been far less pleasant and
comfortable than that of the former Southern
slave in the United States. Should these com-
prehensive educational plans of the Khedive be
carried out successfully, the next generation of
Egyptians, male and female, will be an immense
improvement on their predecessors, and be able
to contrast favourably with the labouring classes
of any country. But even under the most
favourable auspices it will require a generation
to effect this result, even in part ; for the Khe-
dive has to build up the mass of his people from
a very low level indeed : as all who know aught
of the life and labours of the actual Egyptian
fellah must acknowledge. Whether also educa-
tion alone will suffice to correct imperfect
moral and social home-training, and the absence,

162 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

not only of the comforts, but even of the neces-
saries and decencies of life, on the part of
children born and living in such environments
as those which surround the Egyptian fellah
from infancy and accompany him through life,
constitutes another problem, to be solved only
by actual experience. The idea and the effort,
however, are both noble ; and, whatever the
result may be, posterity must do justice to the
initiative of the absolute ruler capable of con-
ceiving, and striving to execute so comprehensive
a plan.

In the year 1862, under Said Pacha's adminis-
tration, the Government appropriation for public
instruction amounted to less than .£6000. In
1872 the Khedive's Government appropriated
J£80,000 for the same object ; added to which,
several private subventions, derived from the
Khedive and his sons, were given to private,
foreign, and native schools.

It is estimated that the number of native boys
old enough to attend school is about 350,000,
and that the proportion actually receiving in-
struction is about twenty-three per cent. ; while
in Turkey it is about ten per cent., and in
Russia but three ; and even in Italy it is
but thirty-one. The comparative civilization in
Turkey and Egypt, tried by this test, may be
judged of from these figures, and the distance

A MERCHANT PRINCE. 163

between them must widen with each successive
year. Besides the schools already mentioned,
the Khedive has established special ones for his
army, now about 30,000 men, and every soldier
now is educated, and well educated, too — pri-
vates as well as officers. The American officers
declare that the aptitude of the Arab in acquir-
ing knowledge, especially in mathematical and
military science, is exceptional. It must be
an hereditary transmission, since we owe our
algebra to Arabia in the first instance. Unlike
the negro race, the Arab seems susceptible of
the highest culture; and opportunity has de-
veloped remarkable ability in many Egyptians
during the present reign.

The Khedive is entitled to the denomination
of merchant prince more than any one who ever
bore that title, combining the two characters
profitably for a long time ; but attempting to
add to it also that of a financier, he wrecked
himself, and has come very near wrecking the
country too. At once the great producer and
exporter from Egypt of its most valuable agri-
cultural products, with a virtual monopoly in
the transit, by forestalling the market and fixing
prices he was able to regulate production, price,
and transportation, and reduce a monopoly into
a mathematical certainty, without the possibility
of rivalry. He enjoyed also the privilege of

164 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

commanding labour at his own or no price, by
corvee — practised habitually in Egypt, and but
recently restrained with fixed limits, but existing
still for all public works, and the Khedive's pri-
vate property, too, unless he is greatly slandered,
and common report prove a common liar. But
this is a subject which will be more fully entered
into in connection with the land tenure, and the
actual condition of the fellah. For the present,
let us consider the personal characteristics of
the man who, almost idolized in Europe but
three years ago, is now proving the fickleness of
public opinion in his own person, by seeing the
reverse of the medal.

Ismail Khedive is a man of about forty-eight
years of age, under the middle height, but
heavily and squarely built, with broad shoulders
which during the last year seem to have become
bowed down by the heavy burdens imposed upon
him, under which he has so manfully struggled.
His face is round, covered by a dark brown
beard, closely clipped, and short moustache of
the same colour, shading a firm but sensual
mouth. His complexion is dark ; his features
regular, heavy rather than mobile in expression.
His eyes, which he keeps habitually half closed,
in Turkish fashion, sometimes closing one
entirely, are dark and usually dull, but very
penetrating and bright at times, when he shoots

THE KHEDIVE'S CHARACTERISTICS. 165

a sudden sharp glance, like a flash, at his interlo-
cutor. His face is usually as expressionless as
that of the Sphinx, or the late Napoleon III., of
whom, in my intercourse with the Khedive, I
have been frequently reminded; for they are men
much of the same stamp in character and intel-
lect, with the same strong and the same weak
characteristics doing constant battle with each
other. The Khedive's voice is very character-
istic— low, somewhat thick yet emphatic, well-
modulated, giving meaning to the most common-
place utterances; his words accompanied by a
smile of much attractiveness when he seeks to
please, and his mind is at ease. But under the
mask of apparent apathy or serenity,, the close
observer will remark, that the lines across the
broad brow and about the strong mouth indicate
strong passions as strongly suppressed, and the
cares of empire intruding ever on lighter
thoughts : and judge the Khedive to be far from
a happy man.

Of his personal amiability of temper his atten-
dants and old empl oyes .speak highly — another
Napoleon trait ; and this natural humanity is
indicated by the cessation of severe punishments,
such as banishment, confiscation, and capital
punishment, during his reign, — with one remark-
able exception, which has produced abroad the
opposite impression, and made one blot on what

166 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

would otherwise have been a stainless record.
During his visit ahroad, in the year of the Great
Exposition at Paris, Ismail was quite a lion, and
excited the jealousy of his suzerain, the Sultan,
by the warmth of his reception, in partibus infi-
delium, both by the members of the European
cabinets and crowned heads.

One of the most curious episodes of this visit
— in which he was accompanied by his adroit and
able Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nubar Pacha,
whose reputation has long since been fully as
European as Egyptian — was his reception of,
and reply to, the deputation of the Anti- Slavery
Societies of England and France ; in which the
tables were adroitly turned on his philanthropic
petitioners, by the skilful and perhaps truthful
character of the response, which covers the
question both of the slave-trade and of domestic
slavery in Egypt.

This deputation presented an address to him,
calling his attention to the White Nile slave-trade,
of which Said Pacha had decreed the abolition.
The address was signed by Joseph Cooper and
A. Chamerovezow on behalf of the English com-
mittee, and by E. Laboulaye and Augustin Cochin
for the French. The deputation was introduced
and presented to the viceroy by Nubar Pacha,
his Minister of Foreign Affairs, who acted as
interpreter, and translated His Highness' reply,

A CUTTING ANSWER. 167

according to Oriental etiquette, though the
prince spoke French as well and fluently as any
man present. The reply of the viceroy was as
follows — and it would be difficult to find, even
among the happiest responses of Talleyrand or
his school, a more cutting, cool, and contempt-
uous rejoinder > couched in language of apparent
courtesy. Nubar Pacha, acting as the mouth-
piece of the viceroy, said —

" The Viceroy felt gratified to receive the
deputation, and was much pleased this step had
been taken, for he was most anxious to put
down the slave-trade. He had adopted the
strongest measures for that purpose. But
although he could act against his own people,
he was powerless to do so against Europeans,
who were the chief delinquents. They carried
on a trade in ivory ; but this was a mere pre-
text, their real article of merchandise being
slaves, who were conveyed down the river in
boats. If these boats had no flag, or sailed
under Egyptian colours, they were liable to be
overhauled, and if slaves were found on board,
boat and cargo were confiscated and the traders
punished. Within the last six months he had
caused to be shot a commandant and a colonel,
who had disobeyed his orders and favoured the
slave-traders. But the slave-trading boats gene-
rally hoist European colours of some sort,
because their owners are Europeans, and if any
question respecting the cargo arises, the answer
is, that the men are part of the crew, the women
their wives or concubines, and the young persons

168 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

their children. The Egyptian authorities could
not do anything under these circumstances, as
they were debarred from the right of search.
Within the last thirty years European influence
had transformed Egypt, and if he were free to
act against European slave-traders the slave-
trade would soon disappear. The European
Powers should give him the necessary authority
to exercise the right of search as regards boats
sailing under European colours.

" The extinction of slavery was another and
distinct question. Slavery had existed in the
country for 1283 years, and was mixed up with
its religion. It was a horrible institution, and
he desired to see it extinguished. But it was
not to be done in a day. He considered that the
civilization and progress of Egypt depended on
its abolition : and were the slave-trade stopped,
slavery would disappear in fifteen or twenty
years, or very few traces of it would remain,
because it would not be recruited from without.
Of the actual slave population many would die
in that time, many would be manumitted, and
others adopted into families.

" He held the opinion — contrary to the views
of his visitors — that the slave-trade was the root
of slavery in his country, and must be stopped
before slavery could cease. The abolition of the
British consulate at Khartoum had certainly
enabled him to act more efficiently against the
slave-traders, but the only effective mode of deal-
ing with the traffic was to arm him with power
to prevent Europeans from prosecuting it."

His introduction of Western civilization into
Egypt ; his Europeanising Cairo, the stronghold

THE MAN AND THE MONARCH. 169

of the vanishing Oriental type of city ; his great
public works ; his greater educational plans ; his
filling his administrations with Europeans, and
placing them at the head of all the principal
bureaux ; his remodelling his army under the
auspices of skilled and trained army officers,
invited from his Ultima Thule, America ; the
broad religious toleration which has made Chris-
tian churches more numerous than Moslem ones,
in proportion to the relative populations of the
two sects, including the Eastern Christians
under his rule, to whom also he has given the
right and imposed the duty of bearing arms in
defence of the State (enrolling them in the army
in defiance of their universal exclusion elsewhere
throughout the Ottoman dominions) — all these
things are notorious, and constitute his claim
to the admiration of Christendom as a wise
reformer, a light newly arisen in the East.

But the financial embarrassments of Egypt
have come up like a cloud to eclipse these
glories, and he is now denounced in more un-
measured terms than he was lauded before,
and even his good deeds and good works
doubted and denied. My task is neither "to
bury Caesar" nor " to praise him." I propose
simply to depict the man and the monarch as
I have seen and known him, and to do justice
at the same time to the ruler, and to his people,

170 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

not sparing the recital of his sins of omission
and commission, while giving a catalogue of the
benefits he has conferred on his country and his
people, heavy as may be the price which both
he and they may have to pay for them. This
Eastern prince is by no means " that faultless
monster the world ne'er saw," but a mere man
like the rest of us, and as such made up out of
a mingled yarn of virtues and vices. That he
possesses that sin by which fell the angels —
ambition — to which a moralist might add vain-
glory and rapacity, cannot be denied ; that, in his
zeal for rapidly reforming his cities and his
people on the European model, he has gone
too far and too fast for his own comfort and
that of his subjects ; that in annexing, and
seeking to annex, Equatorial Africa to Egypt
he has embarked on a dubious enterprise ; that,
in looking solely at the ends in view, he has
often forgotten the means : and in the treatment
of the fellahs left much to be desired; and,
finally, that his expenditure has been greater
than his means ; — all these charges cannot be
disputed.

As the father of a family, with four wive
and, I believe, twelve children, he has left
nothing to be desired which the most steady
bourgeois could demand; being a model head
of the family, on the Oriental plan of course !

AS A FAMILY MAN. 171

Both his sons and daughters have been well
educated by European instructors, and speak
and write French, and perhaps other foreign
languages, with ease and fluency. Both for
sons and daughters he has insisted on the one-
wife principle : his sons and sons-in-law being
each but "the husband of one wife," according
to the Scriptural recommendation. This is
certainly a step in the right direction. But the
young princes only appear in public, or at the
Khedivial entertainments ; the daughters still
live on the hareem plan, for which their educa-
tion has unfitted them.

The Khedive is an immense worker, and as
it is one of the taxes on absolute power that
its head must know and supervise everything,
even to the minutest details, is compelled to
get up early and sit up late at the labour he
loves, of directing the whole State machinery ;
and these labours and cares are beginning to
tell upon his health, as his personal appearance
last winter attested, as well as his own admis-
sions. Yet the rest and vacation which private
men may freely take, are impossible to crowned
heads, especially in such critical circumstances
as those which environ the Khedive. The
labours which used to constitute his pleasure
have become an imperious necessity now.
When he goes abroad, but little of the pomp

172 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

and circumstance of royalty surround the hand-
some but simple equipage which conveys the
absolute master of five and a half millions of
Egyptians, and five millions more of Central
Africans, through the streets of his capital. Clad
in the Stambouli dress, only his fez cap indi-
cates the Oriental; and half a dozen mounted
guards, in his livery of chocolate, precede and
follow the carriage, in which he rapidly passes
by, making salutations as he passes on, by a
slight gesture of the hand to the Europeans,
who raise their hats to him — the natives gene-
rally not courting his recognition, according to
Eastern etiquette.

He lives in a fashion partly European, partly
Eastern — European as to cuisine and mode of
taking his meals, the latter of which he does in
company with the chief members of his house-
hold, his chamberlains, private secretaries,
physicians, and others immediately attached to
his person, with invited guests very frequently.
His dejeuners a la fourchette at mid- day, and
dinners at 7 p.m., are in every respect worthy the
admiration of the most experienced gastronome,
both as to the dishes and the service, the wines
included.

In a subsequent chapter some idea will be given
of the character of these entertainments of the
Khedive inside and outside of the hareem, of

KECEPTIONS, FOKMAL AND INFOEMAL. 173

the latter of which, of course, I speak from hear-
say, and from the report of a lady present at one
of them, given on the occasion of a Khedivial
wedding celebration.

The receptions of the present ruler of Egypt
are far less formal than those of his immediate
predecessors, who strictly adhered to all the old
Eastern usages, and kept up many of the absurd
and obsolete forms still in vogue at Con-
stantinople. The unchangeable Abbas was only
to be seen on compulsion by some foreign repre-
sentative ; Said, only when the whim seized
him ; and both carried the visitor through
fatiguing formalities, pipes, coffee, commonplaces
diluted through interpreters, and other annoy-
ances.

Now the Khedive's receptions are less formal
and more agreeable than those of any European
Court ; though the visitor must be properly
introduced through his own representative at the
Court, and be accompanied by him, if previously
unknown to the Khedive. Access to the Khedive
is wonderfully easy, through his head chamber-
lain, Zecchy Pacha, or one of the other cham-
berlains, all of whom are agreeable, polite, and
accomplished men, speaking French fluently.
Two of them, Zecchy Pacha and Tonnino Bey,
have been employed in the same functions under
the three last viceroys, which speaks volumes

174 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

for their integrity and capacity, since no duties
could be more delicate and difficult than theirs.

Any subject, however humble, may present his
petition or grievance in writing to " Effendina,"
as they style the Khedive.

The winter receptions are usually given at the
Khedive's favourite palace of Abdin, distant
only two or three hundred yards from the large
hotels on the Ezbekieh, on the outskirts of the
city. There is a large open space before the
palace, somewhat similar to the French Champ
de Mars, where the troops are constantly drilling
1 and exercising, their white tents pitched at the
other extremity of the square ; and as you drive
up to the long low range of buildings which
compose the palace, you are apt to witness
military manoeuvres going on ; and finer looking
and better disciplined troops, of a light bronze
colour, would be hard to find anywhere.

En route to the palace you pass through
streets tenanted by small shopkeepers, Levantine
and native — a most unattractive population of all
nationalities, who, with their customers, neither
attract the eye, nor woo the sense of smell with
the " odours of Araby the Blest."

But violent contrasts of this kind, between
the pomps and show of royalty and the ragged
wretchedness of the lower class, are common
everywhere throughout the East, where extremes

HIS THREE RULING PASSIONS. 175

meet more closely than in other countries. At
Abdin, during the winter season when Cairo is
fall of strangers, the Khedive chiefly holds his
Court, has his formal and informal receptions,
gives his breakfasts and dinners to distinguished
foreigners, and two or three soirees musicales or
dansantes, to which ladies as well as gentlemen
are invited.

His larger and grander palace of Ghezireh on
the Nile, with its beautiful gardens, Eastern
kiosque, and menagerie of wild beasts, is more
a show place than a place of regular habitation
for him ; though occasionally grand entertain-
ments are given there also. Here the Empress
Eugenie had her apartments, as well as the
Prince of Wales, when they visited Egypt.

The three chief passions of Ismail Khedive are
his passion for real estate, his vaulting ambition
which sometimes overleaps itself, and his mania
for building, the latter of which he frankly
admitted to me in conversation a year ago.
" Every man," said the Khedive reflectively,
speaking in French, as he always does, "is mad
on some one subject. My mania is for building"
— to use his own words, " <Tai une manie en
pierre." It will be well for him and for his
people should he discover, ere it be too late, his
two other manias, and set to work to curb and
to correct them.

176 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE XI.

FOUB NATIVE MINISTERS AND HEKKEKYAN BEY.

Some of the Khedive's native ministers — Nubar Pacha — His life and
work — Personal traits — A family of diplomatists — Cherif Pacha —
Description of him — Kiaz Pacha — The strange story of Ismail
Sadyk Pacha, the Mouffetich — An Egyptian Wolsey — A visit to his
three palaces, and what we saw there — The moral of his rise and
fall — Hekkekyan Bey — His theory of the Pyramids.

IN his reforms the Khedive has been greatly
aided by his native ministers, most of whom are
men imbued with European culture, or educated
abroad, speaking fluently several languages — that
of diplomacy, or intercourse with foreign agents,
being the French.

The most active and distinguished of these
ministers have been Nubar, Cherif, Eiaz, and
Ismail Sadyk Pachas, respectively Ministers
of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Justice, and
Finance. The War Minister has also been
taken from his own people, though that depart-
ment has in fact been controlled by the
American staff officers, about twenty of whom, on

NUBAR PACHA. 177

the Khedive's invitation, entered the Egyptian
service about six or seven years ago.

As the jealousy of the Porte has forbidden the
Khedive to have a navy, his fleet consists only
of commercial vessels, with a couple of armed
steamers to protect the commerce of the Bed
Sea, and suppress the slavers.

Nubar Pacha, though a man of only middle
age, has been well and favourably known in
Europe as an able statesman for twenty years
past, entering the public service, in which
he immediately took high rank, at a very early
age.

Educated to diplomacy by his famous kinsman,
Boghos Bey, himself one of the ablest counsel-
lors of Mehemet Ali, his life has been spent in
this pursuit. Speaking and writing almost all
the languages of Europe with equal facility,
and conversant with European affairs and their
directors, he has steered Egypt free from the
breakers that surrounded her, under two suc-
cessive reigns : until falling about a year since
under the cold shade of royal displeasure, he
has since been virtually outside of public life,
and travelling abroad as a private person.

Nubar Pacha's personal appearance is at once
striking and prepossessing. Of medium height,
with swarthy complexion, dark eyes and hair,
regular features, and a most winning smile;

178 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

gifted with rare conversational powers, and cour-
teous, almost caressing in manner and speech,
there is a persuasive charm in his manner with
which few men are endowed.

His firmness, however, is one of his chief
characteristics, and his frankness almost amounts
to rudeness at times; and it is most probably
this latter quality that has lost him favour at
Court, where words displeasing to the royal ear
are most unwonted and unwelcome sounds.

Nubar is an Armenian Christian, and that three
viceroys should have retained a man professing
and practising that creed for a series of years,
speaks volumes both for their liberality and his
own capacity ; for he is the worst courtier I ever
saw, and always has been ; his pride, which is
great, ever keeping him erect in mind and body
before his exacting and haughty princes, who
consider their wish as well as will should be
law : and that it is a kind of Use majeste for a
subject to differ from either, even in thought.
His family have not only served but suffered for
the State, in the person of his brother Arakel
Bey — one of the most promising of the rising
statesmen of Egypt — who in the time of Sai'd
Pacha was made Governor of the Soudan, and fell
a victim to the climate in his early prime ; and
the son and namesake of that brother, the Arakel
Bey who, as Governor of Massowa, but the other

HIS CROWNING- WORK. 179

day accompanied Arendrup in the fatal expedi-
tion into Abyssinia, and perished gallantly
fighting by the side of that ill-starred commander,
to avenge whose death the second Egyptian
expedition was despatched, which has but
recently returned. Seldom has a single family,
alien in race and creed to the ruling race, con-
trived to fill for three generations the highest
places in the State, especially under the arbitrary
monarchs of the East ; yet to this rare distinction
the family of Nubar has attained by sheer force
of character and talent, without ever stooping
to unworthy concessions, either religious or
personal. The free institutions of England can
boast of but one Disraeli at the helm of State,
while absolute Egypt can point to Boghos Bey,
to Nubar, and his brother and nephew, as illus-
trations of an enlightened liberality of sentiment,
not usually credited to the Turk.

Perhaps, however, the great and crowning
work of Nubar's career, which finally caused his
exclusion from public affairs, was the establish-
ment of the mixed tribunals : which at the same
time placed a check on the absolute power of
the Khedive, and crippled the influence and
authority of the agents of foreign governments
in Egypt, by depriving them of their former
prerogatives under the old capitulations. At
this work Nubar toiled with undiminished

180 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

labour and patience more than twenty years,
modifying his plan from time to time, but ever
steadily pursuing the main purpose : and con-
tending against the double current setting in
against him, from the throne on one side, and the
consuls on the other. Whatever success these
tribunals may obtain, much of the honour will
be due to their originator and fostering parent.
Whatever defects or shortcomings may be visible
in the practical working of this invention, Nubar
cannot be justly made responsible for them,
since his hand has been taken from the plough,
at the very moment when most needed there, by
the caprice of the Khedive ; and he can neither
supervise his invention, nor give his invaluable
counsel to those who are trying their " 'prentice
han's " upon it.

His relief from the cares of State has however
reinstated health, that the unremitting labours
of many years had begun to impair : for, meeting
him recently at Paris, I was struck with the
improvement in his face and bearing which his
year's vacation had wrought. The name of
Nubar Pacha was prominently brought forward
at the time of the Conference, in connection with
the appointment of a Christian governor for
Bulgaria: but all of his affections and aspira-
tions turn to Egypt, the land of his birth, in
which his race — almost as much a standing

CHERIF PACHA. 181

marvel as the Jewish people in their dispersion
and continued separate existence — has found a
resting-place; and where he is a large landed
proprietor and cultivator.

Cherif Pacha, the contemporary and rival of
Nubar — the two having gone up and down, like
two buckets in a well, in the Foreign Office for
a series of years— has also spent his life in puhlic
service, in which he has grown prematurely
grey.

While Nubar in character and manner re-
sembles an Englishman, Cherif is thoroughly
French in looks and address ; probably under-
standing but not speaking English. He is a
Mussulman by birth and faith, and conforms,
though not rigorously, to Eastern forms of
life and faith. His French affinities were
strengthened by his marriage with a daughter
of Suleyman Pacha (the French Colonel Seves),
who for many years was commander-in- chief
of the Egyptian army. In appearance, as in
mind and character, Cherif is the direct opposite
of Nubar — fair, florid, with light hair and
eyes, the former of which is turning grey. His
manner and address are frank and cordial, more
those of a soldier than of a diplomat. He is
a man to whom deception would be impossible ;
his easy careless manner and open face would
betray him, if he ever attempted it, which

182 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

lie does not. He is clever and quick-witted,
and a most agreeable companion socially : en-
tertaining much and liberally. His strongest
passion is for the chase ; and like Nimrod he
is " a mighty hunter before the Lord/' His
personal qualities make him universally popular.
I do not believe he has any enemies, for I never
heard any one speak ill of him, while the sterner
character of Nubar repels as many as it attracts.

Cherif Pacha seern to have become an indis-
pensable man in the Egyptian administration,
sometimes filling one post, sometimes another :
but chiefly the ministry of foreign affairs or of
commerce, alternating with Nubar.

This fixity of tenure on the part of these two
statesmen, under so arbitrary a government as
that of Egypt, contrasts curiously with the
perpetual change of men, as well as measures,
under freer and more constitutional regimes.
The Eastern Disraeli and Gladstone have only
replaced each other in particular bureaux, from
time to time, but both have continued consecu-
tively in public service in some other depart-
ment ; and have not been allowed the leisure
requisite for the weaving of romances, or cutting
down of trees, in their interregnums : as Western
statesmen have been permitted, both by people
and monarch.

Eiaz Pacha is a younger man, one of the new

RIAZ PACHA. 183

generation. He is an eleve of Nubar, who care-
fully trained him to the work, and enjoys a
reputation for integrity and capacity. He has
filled, and still fills, important posts, in all of
which he has given satisfaction, and may be
considered a rising man.

But the most curious and disastrous career,
for the Khedive,, the country, and finally for
himself, was that of Ismail Sadyk Pacha (the
Mouifetich), late Minister of Finance — a bright
but baleful meteor shooting across the Egyptian
sky, to be quenched in sudden darkness, and
leaving gloom and terror behind.

Yet his story sheds so much light on Egyptian
peculiarities, and on the strange blending of
elements there, that I shall devote some space
to a narration of the life and death, rise and
fall of this Eastern Wolsey, who ruled not only
the country, but seemingly his master also with
a rod of iron for ten years, through some strange
influence which no man in or out of Egypt can
comprehend.

Ismail Sadyk was what Mr. Pitt was said to
be, "a heaven-born financier;" for he was
born and bred an Egyptian fellah, without
training or culture, and to the day of his death
spoke or understood no language but his own.
He was a dark- coloured Arab, slight and
stooping in frame, with sharp features, a face

184 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

devoid of expression, and a shifty cunning eye.
His manner was alternately fawning or brutal,
as he spoke to an equal or an inferior ; and at
first sight he inspired an instinctive repugnance,
which he was plausible enough to remove when
it suited his interest, although conferring
always with Europeans through his interpreter
(an old Frenchman), it was difficult to judge
of his conversational p^^^rs. It may have
been owing to this fact that he produced upon
me, in several interviews I had with him, the
impression of a crafty but ill-informed and short-
sighted man, unable to rise to the height of
a great argument, or even comprehend any-
thing but an appeal to the most selfish motives
and interests, taking a narrow and contracted
view of everything not bounded by his own
immediate horizon. That he should, however,
have obtained and held so long a powerful and
controlling influence over the mind of the
Khedive (whose intellectual ability no one
doubts or denies), affords proof positive that
Ismail Sadyk was no common man, although
" his thoughts were low — to vice industrious,
but to nobler deeds timorous and slothful."
But he has proved the evil genius, the very
Mephistopheles of his master, who finally turned
upon and destroyed him, in mingled wrath,
agony, and fear, offering him up as a scapegoat

THE MOUFFETICH. 185

for the sins which he possibly may have devised,
but in which he had many and very high accom-
plices, thus far escaping with impunity.

He commenced his career as a common fellah,
but proving himself faithful over small things
was rapidly promoted to the care of larger ones
— the Khedive himself, as prince, employing him
as the manager of one of his smaller estates.
From thence, after •**'•*.. accession of his patron
to the throne, he rose gradually to the post of
Mouffetich, or Finance Minister : and under his
evil auspices was commenced that system of
loans and shifty expedients to raise money at
any price from foreign or native money-lenders,
which has plunged the Khedive and the country
into that worse than Serbonian bog, from which
both are now so desperately struggling for
extrication. He was reputed, from his early
training and experience, to understand better
than any man in Egypt, how "to squeeze the
fellah ! " which meant to wring the last para out
of the poor wretches by the threat or use of the
terrible kourbash, or hippopotamus-hide whip, in
the hands of agents as unscrupulous and merci-
less as himself — until a cry went up to earth and
heaven against his oppressions, perpetrated in
the name, if not by the authority, of his master,
who has ever borne the character of a humane
man, constitutionally averse to cruelty. It is but

186 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

an act of simple justice to the Khedive here to
say, that my own personal knowledge of his
character from his earlier days had confirmed
the popular estimate, and that it is difficult for
me to believe that he sanctioned all the exactions
and cruelties perpetrated in his name, through
the agency of the hold bad man who had won
his confidence, and acted for several years
the Wolsey to his master — to meet a heavier
retribution than his unknown exemplar in the
end.

The atmosphere of an Eastern throne is
favourable neither to the sight nor the hearing
of its occupant ; and much that is common talk
abroad never reaches royal ears ; so that
although the Khedive could not have been
entirely ignorant of the cruelties and exactions
perpetrated in his name, and for a long time
condoned them, we yet may give him the bene-
fit of the doubt as to his privity in all the
offences committed against the unhappy fellahs,
nominally by his orders, under the direct super-
vision of the low-born oppressor of his own race
and brethren.

The sole apology that can be set up for this
wretched creature, whose fate has inspired an
ill-deserved pity for him, is that his sudden and
giddy elevation had driven him mad ; and that he
was but partially responsible for his acts; and

A STRANGE STORY. 187

the reckless way in which he rushed upon his
fate, which his own sane judgment should have
foreseen knowing the country as he did, would
seem to sustain this hypothesis. For the sake
of human nature let us give him the benefit of
this doubt as to his sanity ; though his nature
was ever what Carlyle terms the " vulpine " —one
full of crafty suspicion, and tortuous ways to
tortuous ends.

In the very height of his power, profligacy,
and wealth, he was stricken down as though by
a thunderbolt from heaven.

Seeing in the adoption of the financial schemes
proposed by Messrs. Cave, Goschen, and Joubert,
the end of his power and his ilhcit gains, he
fought desperately against them, and rendered
his own removal necessary to the Khedive,
through the revelations he made, and threatened
to make : whether true or false equally embarrass-
ing and damaging to his master's credit.

But he mistook his man, and miscalculated
his influence. Going a step too far on the path of
resistance and intimidation, he toppled over into
an abyss, from which living or dead he never
emerged; for where his bones are no man knows
to-day.

In the telegrams of the London journals there
appeared one morning, what seemed to many a
mere sensational statement — that the Khediye

188 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

had personally taken the Mouffetich to drive,
placed him securely in custody, and was to have
him tried for high treason immediately. Those
who did not know Egypt discredited the state-
ment in toto'j those who knew it immediately
believed the statement (whose dramatic features
made it more probable) and foresaw the end :
although not the sudden and tragic denouement
of what, commencing in comedy, ended swiftly
in sternest tragedy.

The next day, 15th November, 1876, the
Egyptian public, which had been feasting on a
thousand rumours of the most wild and im-
probable character concerning this event, read
in the Moniteur Egyptien, the Government
official journal, the following authorized com-
munication in French : —

" The ex-Minister of Finance, Ismail Saddyk
Pacha, has sought to organize a plot against his
Highness the Khedive, by exciting the religious
sentiments of the native population against the
scheme proposed by Messrs. Goschen and
Joubert. He has also accused the Khedive of
selling Egypt to the Christians, and taken the
attitude of defender of the religion of the country.
These facts, revealed by the inspectors-general
of the provinces, and by the reports of the police,
have been confirmed by passages in a letter
addressed to the Khedive himself by Sadyk
Pacha, in giving his own dismissal. In presence
of acts of such gravity his Highness the Khedive

ITS TEAGIC CONCLUSION. 189

caused the matter to be judged by his Privy
Council, which condemned Ismail Sadyk Pacha
to exile, and close confinement at Dongola."

The Phare, a semi-official journal in French,
in republishing this communication next day,
adds : —

" The ex-minister, who had been kept on
board a steamer on the river, to await the
decision of the Privy Council, was immediately
placed on board another steamer, which left
forthwith for Upper Egypt."

From that hour to this the Mouffetich has
been lost to the sight of man, and a thousand
and one stories of the precise manner and time
of his " taking off," many of the wildest and
mostly improbable character, have been circu-
lated and credited in foreign and native circles
in Egypt.

Some time after his disappearance, a circular
was sent to the foreign consuls-general, an-
nouncing the death of the ex-minister at
Dongola, accompanied by a proces verbal from
the governor of that province, testifying to the
fact of his arrival and death, enclosing also an
autopsy made by three physicians, who, after
post-mortem examination, declared that he died
a natural death from fatigue, grief, and excess.

But most of the Cairenes and Alexandrians
shook their heads sagely over this statement, and

190 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

persist in believing that the Mouffetich did not
survive his arrest twenty-four hours : and that
the steamer which passed up the Nile, with
windows carefully nailed up looking like a float-
ing coffin, encountered by Nile travellers, and
said to be transporting the MonfTetich to his
place of exile in Upper Egypt, was only sent up
for effect ; and contained neither the living nor
the dead ex-favourite and ex-minister.

So this must take its place among the other
many mysteries of this most mysterious land :
whose officials must shake in their shoes some-
times, in remote provinces, when thinking of
their old superior and employer, the Monffetich,
and the thick darkness that enshrouds his real
offence and fate.

But however this may be, his removal from
public station and private intercourse with the
Khedive marks the vanishing point of the old
system of extortion, fraud, and cruelty, of which
he was the master, and the substitution of a
more humane and wiser policy, which alone
can save the Khedive and his country from the
ruin that menaced both — whose ominous shadow
has not yet disappeared.

Having reached Cairo shortly after the events
above narrated, I availed myself of the oppor-
tunity of visiting the palace or palaces of the
ex-minister, which were open on certain days
for inspection.

VISIT TO HIS PALACES. 191

The confiscation and sale of the effects and
property of the Mouffetich, for the satisfaction
of his creditors, had been advertized, and was
going on in that leisurely way everything is
done in this land of bade bulcdra, or day after
to-morrow, wherein the poet Thompson should
have placed his " Castle of Indolence." So we
concluded to attend it, to see whether the
rumours as to the boundless wealth and pro-
digality of the Mouffetich were founded on truth.
It took a short drive of fifteen minutes to reach
there. Crowds of people were attending the
sale, and walking over the acres of carpeting
that covered the three vast palaces, which
seemed insufficient to lodge this born-fellah,
for another incompleted wing was in the course
of construction at the time of his sudden and
mysterious disappearance.

Wolsey, with his Hampton Court, that bluff
King Hal considered " too great for a subject ! "
dwindles into insignificance when compared with
this more than regal robber, who sprang from
a mud hut on the Nile, in less than ten years,
into the possession of more palaces, jewels,
women, and slaves, than Solomon in all his
glory could boast of.

The three palaces are in the new quarter of
Ismailieh — so named after the Khedive — are
separate piles of buildings, though surrounded

192 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

by a high wall, and probably cover with their
gardens an area as large as that of the Pyramids.
They are all built and profusely decorated in
French style, without any regard to expense,
and to walk entirely through them — for they are
all vacant now — would take an entire morning.
The carpeting, the curtains, the furniture, the
decorations, must have cost untold money, as
carte blanche must have been given the uphol-
sterers, and all the thousand rooms these palaces
are said to contain are furnished in the same
splendid style — over-furnished in fact, with
enough gilt and glitter to dazzle one's eyes. All
the window curtains were of the heaviest and
richest satin, and the different tints of the same
colour were perceptible, from chocolate even to
pale grey, each room being furnished en suite
with chairs and sofas in French style. There
were but few divans, and these in rooms
evidently intended for reception of his native
friends. The peculiarity was that each room
shaded off in colour into the next, from dark to
light, embracing every colour to be found in the
rainbow. Great taste was displayed in these
combinations, the portieres on the doors and
heavy curtains at the windows, of which I
counted sixteen in one apartment, being of the
same description. Here this peasant-born, un-
educated creature, who understood only theft

AN EGYPTIAN SAKDANAPALUS. 193

and oppression squatted down, surrounded by
his wives and women. Of wives, regular and
irregular, he is said to have had thirty-six : each
one of whom had six white slaves and a retinue
of black ones. In fact the population of a
small village was crowded into these piles of
building, for the gratification of the pride or
brutal passions of this low-born fellah. Stories
of his corruption and cruelty were freely circu-
lated after his fall, and whispered long before ;
but the "conspiracy," which was made the
pretext of his death and the confiscation of his
property, finds few believers in Egypt. They
say he had earned and richly merited the
dreadful doom which fell upon him, by a long
course of crimes; but that neither the real
reason, nor the real fate which befel him, has
been given to the public ; and that he was
finally the victim of a State necessity, as in-
exorable as the grave.

The sale was going on briskly, in the midst of
a Babel of confusion, at the first palace we
entered, in the grand reception-room, crowded
with people of all nationalities and colour. In
the midst of this parti-coloured crowd a number
of black and white slaves were moving about,
with trays full of jewelry, and large cases con-
taining every description of female ornaments,
from ceintures set in diamonds to the value of

194 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

.£7000, to cheap jewelry of the most common
description. These were freely offered for public
inspection, and were passed from hand to hand
most carelessly, while the bearers were shouting
out, at the top of their lungs, the bids already
made for the objects exhibited. If you wished
to increase the bid, your name and offer were
taken down by a scribe at hand, and at the close
of the day's sale these bids were jotted down
and the article assigned to the purchaser, if
the amount bid was considered sufficient by the
person in charge of the liquidation. I was told
the articles were bringing high prices : partly on
the Eastern principle of investing in such port-
able values, and partly because the creditors of
the Mouffetich were allowed to discount half on
account ; and probably thought half a loaf better
than no bread.

The old Eastern principle of the inviolability
of the hareem must have been broken in this
instance, as this jewelry evidently was part of
the spoils of the multitudinous wives and
slaves of this Egyptian Sardanapalus. What
had become of the fair or dusky owners of
these jewels no one could tell me. The suppo-
sition was, they had been absorbed into other
establishments of a similar description ; but
whether by sale or free gift, " nobody knows and
nobody cares." If the taste of the Monffetich

HIS TASTE FOR HOURIS. 195

was as comprehensive in houris as in jewelry, he
must have had a most miscellaneous collection
of ministering angels. Personally he was a
mean and dirty-looking Arab of low type, and
to all who had ever seen him, the contrast
between the man and his surroundings was
startling indeed.

Such mushroom growths are possible only in
the soil, where Jonah's gourd attained its
wonderful growth in the shortest possible space
of time ; but his rise and fall, and the relics of
his luxury, must recall more the romances of the
" Thousand and One Nights," than the sober
experiences of modern Egypt in the nineteenth
century.

The soil, in which such poisonous fungi can
suddenly spring up and flourish in rank luxu-
riance, certainly needs draining and cleansing.
Passing from the sale-room for jewelry into
an inner apartment, or series of apartments, we
saw tables covered with gold and silver plate
— Eastern and European work — no less than
precious metals serving the turn of this luxurious
fellah. Even the ewers and basins, in which he
and his guests washed their hands, or rather
had running water poured over them, were
of silver. The value of many thousands of
pounds was deposited on the tables of one of
these rooms alone. Another proof of the change

196 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

of habits among the rich here, even with those
who are not Europanized in mind or customs,
was the substitution of bedsteads for divans, on
which to sleep. The first palace was full of
these, intended probably for the use of wives
or guests ; for the Mouffetich always presented
the appearance of a man, who wore by day
the clothes, in which he had slept on a divan the
previous night. The gardens in front of the
three palaces were very spacious and handsome,
and the value of the real estate must be large ;
but what can possibly be done with these huge
barracks of buildings, crammed full of costly
furniture and curtains, almost valueless outside
of them ? There is some talk of converting one
of them into public offices. They would serve
the purpose of hospitals admirably ; only there
is too much of them, and the decorations are
too fine.

But as Mehemet Ali's old citadel palace, and
even his hareem apartments, are now appropri-
ated to the army staff, it is more than probable
that the costly piles of the Mouffetich may come
to some such use at last. For the moment they
constitute the sole monument of the man, who
ruled Egypt with a rod of iron for eight years,
and died a dog's death at last.

One of the most curious objects in the palace,
or palaces, was a very large picture in a heavy

AN EASTERN PHILOSOPHER. 197

gilt frame, containing life-sized portraits of the
son of the Mouffetich and his wife, an adopted
daughter of one of the Khedive's wives. It was
just such a picture as you would expect to find
in a royal palace ; and as neither wore the
Eastern dress, the resemblance was still stronger.
The man was sitting, the woman standing — he
in ordinary Frank dress, without even the
tarbouch ; she represented in the fashionable
European dress of the day, of rich blue velvet
and lace, with a tiara of diamonds on her head
resembling a crown. She was a very pretty and
graceful-looking woman, and one would have
mistaken her for a European — a mistake no
one would have made as to her husband, whom
we saw sitting placidly in one of the rooms,
apparently watching the sale, and entertaining
his friends with coffee ; as though he were still
master of the house, and had not been one of
the chief victims of the heavy retribution, which
had fallen on his father, and all connected with
him by blood or interest.

Not only his fortune and prospects had been
blasted, but even his wife had been taken from
him : as she was promptly divorced after his
father's fall. Yet there he sat, seemingly as
cheerful and as unconcerned as though the
family tragedy had been only a Christmas panto-
mime, and himself a spectator, not an actor in it.

198 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Practical philosophy like this Europeans might
preach, but could never practise.

In order, however, not to present a bad speci-
men of the native-born Egyptian (and indeed a
Mouffetich is always an exceptional type in
every land), I shall conclude these sketches of
Egyptians, with a brief notice of a man of whom
any nation might be justly proud.

Hekkekyan Bey was one of that strange race
which, like the Hebrew, has preserved its
nationality without a country, and is as dis-
tinctive to-day as it was thousands of years ago.
He was an Armenian Christian, a kinsman of
Artin Bey, a former minister. Educated by
order of Mehemet Ali in England early in the
present century, he spoke English with the cor-
rectness of a native, and without the slightest
accent ; he was a member and correspondent of
several philosophical societies, as thorough an
Englishman to talk to, as you might meet any
day in Pall Mall or Piccadilly. Employed in the
Foreign Office at home under that now remote
reign, he fell into disfavour, being no courtier,
and for thirty-five years spent his time in learned
leisure, keeping up constant intercourse with
foreign savants and societies, and occupying
himself with abstruse philosophical investiga-
tions. Among other things, he promulgated a
theory that the Pyramids — of which he asserted

HEKKEKYAN BEY. 199

there had been a long chain — were intended as
barriers to the encroachment of the desert sands :
and not, as usually supposed, monuments to
human pride, or the tombs of kings. To see
him abroad in his Oriental dress, mounted on
his favourite dromedary, scouring along the
Shoubra road or over the desert, you would have
considered him a veritable type of the old
Oriental. But visit him in his house at Cairor
also thoroughly Oriental, embowered in gardens,
and on his table you would see the latest sci-
entific publications from England, together
with the last English journals, evidently his
favourite reading. Converse with him, and you
would marvel at the extent and accuracy of
his general information, and at the originality
and boldness of his philosophic speculations ;
and leaving him, you would regret that powers
so rare had been of so little use to him-
self or to mankind. He died at the age of
sixty-eight, prematurely old, and like Swift "at
top first." The men who knew Egypt and the
Egyptians twenty years since, and more recent
visitors, will remember him as a very exceptional
type of the Europeanized Oriental.

200 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEK XII.

THE LAND OF EGYPT AND ITS PRODUCTIONS.

Egypt nothing, if not agricultural — Contrasted with India and China—
Feeds her own population — "The life of Egypt" — Five million
acres under cultivation — How cultivated — Flax culture — Cotton
culture — Sugar culture — Extracts from recent report on Khedive's
sugar estates — Curious facts and figures relating to it — The grain
crops — The date and fruit culture — Land taxation — A painful picture
of a year's work in the fields.

EGYPT is nothing, if not agricultural. There is
her strength, her substance, her existence ; and
so has it been with her since the days when
Joseph was Pharaoh's chief counsellor, and she
was the unexhaustible granary of the world.

Keference has already been made to the wild
and fruitless efforts of Mehemet Ali to change
her natural bent and bias, and introduce manu-
facturing and mining industries by main strength ;
resulting only in a great waste of time,
money, machinery, and labour. Similar lessons
have been given to those of his successors
who sought to imitate his example : and the
conclusion has been forced upon unwilling

202 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

minds that in the soil alone lies the strength
and the wealth of Egypt. The whole extent
of land under cultivation at present is nearly
five millions of acres, of which about 719,000
are devoted to the culture of cotton ; the rest
is devoted to rice, sugar, beans, barley, maize,
and clover (bersim). From two to three suc-
cessive crops can be made off this land each
year, owing to the peculiar features of climate,
soil, and cultivation.

It has often and justly been said that " the
Nile is the life of Egypt!" for it is owing to
the aid of its fertilizing waters that Egypt is,
and has ever been, such an exhaustless granary
and storehouse of food for man ; while farther
east we hear, year after year^ the despairing cry
of famishing millions echoing across the wide
waters, " Give us bread or we perish!" Yet
hands are far more numerous in India and in
China — labour far more plentiful and cheaper
than in Egypt. But the great artery of Egypt's
life is lacking to them ; they have no Nile,
bearing down from Abyssinia, and regions yet
unexplored, the rich deposits with which it
annually fertilizes the favoured land of Egypt,
and renews the exhaustion consequent on the
cultivation of untold centuries. In more
primitive times the great river was allowed to
follow its own sweet will, and annually overflow

THE LIFE OF EGYPT, 203

its banks, to place this deposit upon the surface
inundated; but of late years engineering skill
has been called in to restrain and direct that
overflow by means of canals ; so that the yearly
cutting (the "Haleeg") at Cairo, to let in the
water from the Nile, has become one of the most
imposing State ceremonials, over which the
Khedive presides in person, in the midst of great
and general public rejoicings.

There are certainly many advantages in the
new over the old plan, one of which is that the
natural inundation would keep a large body of
the lands three months out of cultivation, if left
to its own wanderings ; but many old Egyptians
contend that much of the fertilizing deposit is
lost, by allowing it to settle in the bed of the
river, when first brought down from Upper and
Central Egypt.

Whether this be true or false, it sounds
plausible ; and the introduction of fertilizers of
late years into Egypt, would seem to give colour
to the theory. Man frequently mars Nature's
plans by meddling with and trying to improve
them ; and the Nile is an exceptional stream, in
more respects than in its reversal of the
ordinary rule in running from south to north :
in which caprice it has very few companions.

The whole extent of land under cultivation
in Egypt Proper, may be roughly estimated as

204 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

a little less than five millions of acres, out of
which, according to Government statements,
.719,000 are devoted to cotton; about 260,000
to sugar, a Khedivial monopoly; and the rest,
as previously stated, to different species of grain.
The two last viceroys have done their utmost
to introduce steam-ploughs, pumping-machines,
and improved agricultural implements : and have
introduced them on their own lands, as well
as on those of their more enlightened subjects
(unfortunately yet very few in number) ; but
the native agriculturists, the fellahs, on their
small holdings, prefer and adhere to the ways
of their primitive forefathers, with a mild
obstinacy that is impossible to overcome.
They insist on holding fast to the groaning
water-wheel (or saJcJcia), turned on its creaking
wooden beams by the plodding water-ox; they
prefer scratching the ground with the rude
wooden contrivance that they term a plough ;
and the " ox that treadeth out the corn," in the
Old Testament, has bequeathed his duties to
his descendants, on the threshing-floor of the
bare earth, where now as then the Egyptian
rustic cleanses his grain. Yet such is the
climate, and such the soil, that even with thSse
primitive contrivances, and no fertilizer beyond
the Nile water, the most bounteous harvests
repay the toil of the fellah : and he has not one

THE FLAX CULTURE. 205

only, but two or three successive ones, in the
course of one revolving year.

In the earlier days of the new Egypt, the
cultivation of flax was carried on very largely
and profitably; but has since been supplanted
by that of cotton. Ibrahim Pacha was in the
habit of selling his crop of flax, in three different
parcels to three different purchasers, at different
prices and at different times. He used then
carefully to compare the three sales, so as to
decide where and from whom he could get the
best price.

When he paid his short visit to England, he
suddenly announced to his suite his intention
of visiting Belfast; and did so, that he might
examine the machinery, and some new methods
of preparing the flax adopted there.

Sai'd Pacha did not in person either super-
intend the cultivation or the sale of the products
of his properties, which were never very large.
He was too much absorbed in other matters,
for which he had more taste. During his time
the fellah was left pretty much alone to culti-
vate his lands, but Sai'd took from the peasant
proprietors much of the land called Abadiehs; i.e.,
land which could not be sufficiently or efficiently
worked, in consequence of the insufficiency of
hands in the neighbourhood, owing either to the
want of dense population, or removal of the men

206 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

from the fields for enlistment in the army, or
working by corvee on the canals ; both of which
were very heavy drains on the population. He
also laid heavier taxes on the fellahs, but being
at heart a generous and a just man, discouraged
and punished all oppression or peculation on
the part of the tax-collectors or governors of
provinces, when proven to his satisfaction.

The cotton plant is indigenous to Egypt, and
has been cultivated time out of mind on the
narrow strip of fertile land which fringes the
Upper Nile, beginning at Thebes. But this native
cotton is of inferior quality, short in staple, coarse
in fibre, and fit only for the manufacture of the
coarse stuff worn by the fellah men and women.
Its cultivation was very limited, and until the
year 1819 it was the only kind grown in
Egypt, and was exclusively used for home con-
sumption. In this year, when the energetic rule
of Mehemet ALL was reviving old Egypt from
its ashes, a Frenchman named Jumel, walking
in the gardens of Mako Bey, at Cairo, observed
a curious plant, the leaf and flower of which
were unfamiliar to him. He questioned the
gardener, and learned it was the cotton plant, a
few specimens of which had been brought from
India, to give variety to the shrubbery of the
garden. Seeing the great superiority of this
plant to the common kind cultivated in the

THE COTTON CULTURE. 207

upper country, M. Jumel brought the matter
to the attention of the viceroy; who by his
aid and co-operation, succeeded in making its
culture general in the fertile lands of the Delta
of Lower Egypt : whence the great bulk of the
crop is now obtained.

It was not until 1840 that the experiment of
introducing the American sea island cotton
seed was attempted. Since that time it has
been largely introduced, and the yield has been
fully equal to that of the best sea island. From
some peculiar quality of the soil however, or
possibly from the system of irrigation adopted,
it has been found necessary to procure new sea
island seed every two years ; and the Jumel or
Mako cotton has therefore been preferred by
the Egyptian cultivators.

There are therefore three species of cotton
grown in Egypt :—

1st. The native cotton, short staple, coarse.

2nd. Mako or Jumel, long staple, fine.

3rd. American sea island, ditto.

These varieties are all perennial, but are sown
annually, except the Mako, which will last two
years. The Mako is greatly preferred, although
the cotton it produces is not quite equal to the
best sea island, but rather better than the best
American upland cotton.

The two latter species alone are exported;

208 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the first, or native cotton, cultivated on the
Upper Nile, being used chiefly for stuffing
divans — the Egyptian substitute for our chairs
and beds, and which serve the double purpose
of seats by day and couches by night, even
among the richer classes. It is also used to
make the " Nizam " or soldiers' uniform, as well
as the single blue shirt which constitutes the
entire toilette of both male and female fellah.
The culture of this species is not extensive, nor
are these fabrics now manufactured as largely
as formerly. Mehemet ALL, who entertained
the idea of manufacturing on a large scale,
established twenty-four large factories, employ-
ing 24,000 operatives, but it was soon found
to be unprofitable ; so that in 1852 all that
remained of his great enterprise were one large
mill worked by steam, and three small ones
worked by ox power, manufacturing chiefly
army uniforms, and consuming on an aver-
age not more than 10,000 bales of cotton per
annum.

The rapidity with which the cotton culture
developed itself, after M. Jumel's walk in the
garden at Cairo, may be inferred from the follow-
ing statement of exports : —

In 1821, Exports were 60 bags, of 100 Ibs. each.

1822 „ „ 500 „

1823 „ „ 1200 „

1824 „ „ 1500 „ „ ^

A NEW DESCRIPTION OF COTTON. 209

This too while Meheinet Ali's experiment of
manufacturing was going on, consuming an
amount of which we have no means of judging,
as statistics are a modern innovation in Egypt.
In 1852 the annual exportations of cotton had
risen to about 44,000,000 pounds; in 1856, to
57,000,000; and in 1865, to the maximum of
560,000 bales.

Quite recently a new kind of cotton has been
discovered and successfully cultivated in Egypt,
which is said to yield much more than any
previously known. Indeed, it is claimed that
the yield is four times as great as that of the
ordinary kinds. I was told that this cotton has
this peculiarity, that the bolls instead of being
•attached to the branches of the plant, adhere
closely to the stem. I was not fortunate enough
to be able to obtain any specimens of the plant
itself : but the seeds were in great demand, and
some have already been sent abroad. The lucky
discoverer is a native planter, and the new cotton
is causing some excitement and very " great
expectations " in the breasts of the excitable
Alexandrians, to whom cotton still is king ! in
despite of the heavy losses their over-confi-
dence in that plant and its products has caused
them. From one of these gentlemen, who pro-
bably understands the business, and the cotton
culture in Egypt, better than any man there, I

210 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

obtained the statement, which will be found in
the appendix : and which, coming from a private
and reliable source, may be more thoroughly
depended upon than the statements made by or
through the agents of the Government, who
often have their own private reasons for increas-
ing or diminishing the annual yield, or exporta-
tion, from private or public considerations.*

While cotton brought high prices — it rose to
half a crown per pound during the American
war — it paid well; but at Id., as it now is, it
is hard to see how it can bring a profit on its
production.

SUGAE. — The culture of the cane, and the pro-
duction of sugar, have been the great hobby of
the present ruler of Egypt : who has devoted to
them an immense sum of money, and a very
great quantity of the labour of the country,
diverted for that purpose from far more profitable
pursuits. This labour, if it cost him personally
little, has cost the country and the fellahs
prodigiously dear> and has excited great discon-
tent among these patient people throughout
Upper Egypt, whence the corvees for it have
been drawn, (if I am correctly informed) ; for
of this I do not speak from my own personal
knowledge*

How much this experiment has cost, it is

* See Appendix H.

THE SUGAR CULTURE. 211

impossible even to form an idea of: but the
enormous amount of useless machinery pur-
chased and never used, or used unprofitably ;
the vast sums expended on the preparation of
the lands, and the creation of a canal, on which
it is estimated a fourth of the labour devoted to
that of Suez had to be employed, constitute the
direct expenses. The indirect outlay may be
computed at a very large sum, and is represented
by the labour of the fellahs for three months
every year upon these lands ; which labour, if
bestowed on their own fields, in the production
and rotation of their grain crops, would produce
far more profitable results, — not to speak of the
improvement in their condition. Even were they
paid for their labour on the Khedive's lands—
which I am credibly informed they seldom if
ever are, and in food if at all — the public loss
must be equally great in the diminution of the
crops ; theirs being the only available labour.

I am not aware that any of the reports on the
Khedivial debts and property touch on this
point, which is certainly a very delicate one.

A very full and apparently fair report on these
sugar properties has recently been made by two
foreign experts, who have lately visited them,
from which I shall make a few extracts, never
having personally visited the place.

They report an abundant supply of water, a

212 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

good railway system for conveyance of the canes,
etc., and a quantity of machinery vastly exceed-
ing the wants of the mills, of which also there
are many more, both in and out of working order,
than there is any necessity for. " The scarcity
of labour alone prevents the extension of the
plantations " in their judgment.

The Khedive's sugar estates, on the line of
railway from Cairo to Assiout, extend over a
tract 100 miles in length, and from twelve to
sixteen miles in breadth, chiefly on the west
side of the Nile.

Canes are grown on the same land two years
in succession without replanting, after which
the roots are ploughed up, and the land either
left fallow for a year, or a grain crop put in.
The visitors consider the canes to be planted too
close together, viz. but three feet apart : whereas
in the West Indies six feet are allowed. The
mode of cutting down — hacking with a blunt
hatchet — is also objected to. Steam ploughs are
in use there. " Complete machinery for twenty-
two factories seem to have been imported, some
of which are partly erected, others becoming
gradually buried in the sands on the river's
banks. There is a skeleton factory near the
Feshu station, of which the machinery has been
three parts erected, but the walls were never
commenced, and the machines left to ruin.

THE KHEDIVE'S SUGAR FACTORIES. 213

Original cost in Europe for machinery for
larger factories is said to have been about
£130,000 each."

A large amount of unused extra machinery
is lying scattered about over the whole country,
arising from French and English rivalry in the
erection of factories, The total cost of the
factories is roughly estimated at £5,000,000; add
£2,000,000 more for cost of rolling stock of the
estate railway, pumping engines, etc., and the
total cost rises to £7,000,000. There is a
system of railway all over the estate, connecting
the different factories. This is the only way in
which the cane can be brought in fast enough ;
18,000 cantars, or over 800 tons, per day being
required to keep the large factories going,
working day and night for sixty or seventy days>
commencing at the beginning of the year, as the
canes must be crushed up immediately on ripen-
ing. The factories are under the management
of the engineer, the only European now employed
on these works ; the management of the estate
being entirely in Arab hands, each separate
manager looking exclusively to the private
interests of his section, regardless of the general
welfare. Their feddan is elastic, and their habit
is to return a larger quantity of land than is
really under cultivation, to make their profits
out of imaginary disbursements for labour, etc.

214 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Speaking of the improvements that might be
made under European administration, the report
says — " Certainly a higher rate of wages would
have to be paid than that now paid by the
Daira; and there would be probably an in-
sufficiency of labour, owing to the thin popula-
tion of this part of the country, and the aversion
of the people to the ivorJc. At present all the
labour is compulsory.

" At Assiout we saw some small corvees
working on the above-mentioned canal banks.
Small children, and boys and girls as young as
seven or eight years, were walking all day up
and down the banks, with their baskets of earth.
Their pay was a daily supply of bread, which has
certainly improved in quality on that supplied
them last year. We visited the bakery, and saw
that it was made simply of coarsely ground
wheaten flour, but the Nile mud and chopped
straw had not been too carefully extracted. It
was lightened, more or less, by sour dough.
Still it was comparatively good and wholesome.
The man in charge confessed the quality to be
superior to that of last year, but attributed the
reason solely to the improvement in the wheat ;
a doubtful reason, seeing that they are still using
last season's wheat, which they were then using
in its new condition. The children looked very
thin and miserable, and their extreme poverty

FOECED LABOUR. 215

was evinced by the unbounded delight exhibited
by a small boy, on receiving a coin equal in
value to one-sixteenth of a penny.''

This is certainly not a flattered or a pleasing
picture, nor can it be regarded as an exceptional
one. " There are a dozen sets of large fixed
pumping engines, with fine brick building and
tall chimney each, on the Nile banks ; but their
use has been destroyed by the new canal, called
the Ibrahimieh, which is cut from the river at
Assiont by fellah labour : twenty-five to thirty
yards in average breadth, with rows of fine
bridges, locks, and sluices dividing the canal
into three large branches and two small canals.
The cost of these disused pumps was probably
not less than .£500,000. This new canal is one
of the largest, finest, and most costly in the
country. Its chief use is to supply water to the
Khedive's estates." No statement or estimate
as to its cost is given.

The labour question is thus touched on in this
report, from which it appears that some pay is
given or promised to the labourers, which is
" paid in kind — grain or molasses — on which the
Da'ira makes a profit; " thus reducing the pay,
wretched as it is. In fact, the skilled labourers
are the only ones who really get, or are promised,
anything beyond a little coarse food — " grain
or molasses" — which can keep a man or boy in

216 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

that climate in bad working order. The report
says —

" The wages received by the ordinary hands in
the factories are Id. to 7jd. per day for men and
4d. for boys, and by the hands working in the
fields 4d. per day for men and %^d. for boys. They
are always paid in kind — grain or molasses — on
which the Daira as a rule makes a profit. As
mentioned above, they are compelled to ivorJc.
Their condition is exceedingly miserable, and
their appearance much more savage than the
fellahs of the Delta. Skilled Arab labourers,
such as men that attend to the engines and such
like work, receive 205. to 255. per month. Men
driving the locomotive engines receive from
£3 to £5 per month, and stokers about 305. per
month. The pay of all is allowed to get much

in arrear."

The grain culture in Egypt — which is so large
as to suffice not only to feed its own population,
but to export largely to other countries — together
with the cotton culture, occupies the exclusive
attention of the fellahs, when they are not drawn
from it by requisitions to work on the canals or
drafted into the army, the conscription being
practised in a most irregular and sweeping
manner. In peaceful times, however, a large
proportion of the soldiers are sent back on leave
to their villages to aid in tilling the ground ; and

THE GRAIN CULTURE. 217

even while in actual service their labour is often
utilized by their being set to work in squads
in the fields, under command of non-commis-
sioned officers. It is said their labour is far
superior to and more reliable than that of the
ordinary fellah, who is a steady but not a fast
worker in the old style. This conversion of the
bayonet into the plough, is one of the most
sensible things which is done by the Egyptian
Government ; and a permanent change in the
occupation of thousands of the stalwart young
fellows, who constitute the army of Egypt, by
their return to peaceful pursuits, would prove a
blessing to them and to their country ; since war
is a game at which only powerful monarchs can
afford to play. The land now pays an annual
tax of almost, if not quite, £4,000,000, including
the Moukabaleh — of which explanation will be
given in the chapter on finance — a taxation
which, on 5,000,000 acres (one-fifth of which,
being royal property, only nominally pays the
tax), must be admitted to be very onerous
indeed.

But, unhappily, this is only one of the Govern-
ment impositions on the landholders, as the
annexed statement from a most reliable source
will show. The value of the crops on average
lands on the two years' system of rotation is as
follows : —

218 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Expenses.

P.T. Water. P.T.

" Cotton, 3£ cantars, at ... 260 equal to 910 less 260 equal to 650
Wheat, 6 ardebs, at ... 50 „ 240 „ 70 „ 170
Maize, 3 ardebs at ... 60 „ 180 ,,100 „ 80
Bersim (clover), per crop — „ 600 „ 140 „ 460

P.T. 1360

£13 19s. Od.

"In the three years' rotation these figures
would, of course, be altered, but as I am only
considering the fellaheen cultivation it is unne-
cessary to give the three years' figures in detail.
Thus the gross annual receipts of the two feddans,
at the present price of cotton, only come to about
£7. The expenses which must be deducted, in
addition to the watering, in order to arrive at
the net result, such as the price of seed, labour,
and carriage, are difficult to arrive at, and vary
according to circumstances. Thus the cattle
plague of this year has swept away two -thirds of
the horses in the country, and has enormously
increased the expense of carriage to railway,
canal, or warehouse. But the ordinary calcula-
tion is, that the wheat, maize, and clover crops
pay all working wid living expenses, and the
value of the cotton — <£6 13s. 6d. — goes to pay
the two years' taxes. The living expenses are
marvellously small. Bread and vegetables are
the food, Nile water the drink, an annual cotton
gown the clothing, a mud hut the shelter.
There could not be a creature of fewer wants

EGYPTIAN TAXATION. 219

than the Egyptian fellah. It will be a sign of
progress when he is less of an animal and his
wants are more complex.

" Now, as regards the amount of taxation, I am
informed on very good authority that the taxes
levied on land during the last two years in the
Delta, including the Moukabaleh, the National
Loan, and a small war tax, have exceeded
P.T.400* per annum. The taxation has therefore
been in actual excess of receipts, and although
the fellah and his family have slaved in the fields
from sunrise to sundown, he has failed to make
the two ends meet. In many cases loans from
Europeans at usurious rates have furnished the
means of payment. Pay-day has now come.
The capitalists are encashing what they can, and
the tribunals are full of such cases. In fact, it
is going hard with the fellaheen — beasts, pro-
duce, goods, hareem jewellery where it existed,
and even the land itself are being sold to meet
their debts. One does not like to believe that
even this enormous fiscal charge has been in-
creased by irregular exactions, but all informants
concur in saying that this has been so."

This is not a pleasing picture, but my own
observation and inquiries induce me to believe
that it is unhappily, a true one.

* We may roughly reckon 100 piastres to the pound sterling, which
would bring the taxation up to £4 per annum.

220 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

The Khedive ought not justly to be saddled
with the whole responsibility of this, for he is
the heir to a vicious system, and the clamour of
his creditors, public and private, has driven him
almost to desperation, and desperate diseases
often demand desperate remedies.

The creditors of Egypt, however, who are the
instigating cause of these exactions and oppres-
sions, should have sense enough to see that no
goose, however golden, can long survive such
treatment — no people, however patient and long-
suffering, live and work under it. The speedy
end of persistence in a policy at once so cruel
and so fatal should at once be insisted upon,
even at the cost of a reduction of the interest
now paid them out of the sweat and blood of
the fellaheen, and by impositions, ordinary and
extraordinary, which no country or people on
earth could long endure.

Gladly indeed, if he could safely do so, would
the Khedive diminish these burdens ; and his
offer to assign over his sugar estates to his
creditors, and wash his hands of all responsibility,
proves at once his humanity and his sagacity.

Shall Christian creditors be less humane and
less sagacious than this Mohammedan ruler?
Will they make themselves responsible before
heaven and earth of complicity in cruelties and
exactions, which sicken even the callous hearts

WHO IS MOST RESPONSIBLE ? 221

of the Moslem, who are, under their constraint,
inflicting them ?

These are questions that the outside world,
who are not creditors to the Khedive, will ask,
and which they must be prepared to answer.
For, I repeat, the solution of this stern problem
rests more with them than with Ismail Khedive,
" who is as clay in the hands of the potter," in
the hands of his foreign creditors.

222 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE XIII.

'THE FELLAHEEN.

Who is the fellah, and what is he ? — His earlier history as written on
the tombs and temples, in the Scriptures, on stone and papyrus — A
letter three thousand years old concerning him, in the British
Museum — How Joseph treated him under Pharaoh — Origin of land
tenure in Egypt — Under the Mamelukes and the house of Mehemet
Ali, the new masters of his "house of bondage" — His treatment
under successive viceroys — His present condition.

ONE fundamental mistake underlies almost every-
thing that has been said or written of the
Egyptian fellah, either by his sentimental or
indignant advocates, by kind-hearted women,
or sympathetic tourists, who, regarding him as
the dumb drudge — the serf, adscriptus glebce,
attached to the land and not owning it — have
been entirely in error as to his true position and
stake in the country, which owes its wealth to
him.

Strange as it may sound to those who know
and have seen the fellah only by the wayside, or
working in gangs upon the corvees (compulsory
labour for public works), or whining out for

224 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

"backsheesh " at the railway stations, every
man among them is or has been a land-owner
or a land-holder by lease ; and the bitterest taunt
that one fellah woman can launch at another
is this, in the Arabic vulgate : " Go ! Poor
woman ! Your man does not own even a ' karat '
(twenty-fourth part of an acre) of land!" So
identical are property and " respectability," even
among these ragged landed aristocrats !

The researches of Egyptologists have proved
that the common belief, that the fellah is not
the direct descendant of the Egyptian labourer,
is equally erroneous. They have proved him
not to be a spawn of the Arab conquerors under
Amrou, but the original denizen of the soil : who,
submitting to this last invasion^ as he had to all
preceding ones, ended by adopting the language
and religion of the latest of his masters.

Not only do the recently deciphered papyri
attest this, but an observant traveller to-day,
turning from the sculptured faces in the pro-
cessions in the temples and tombs, to the faces
of the fellaheen who bear the torches by whose
light he sees them, cannot fail to be struck by
the similarity in type and outline between the
two ; still distinctly recognizable after the lapse
of four thousand years.

The Copt is manifestly of the same ancient
race, perhaps of a higher caste or class; or

ANCIENT AND MODERN EGYPTIANS. 225

perhaps the differences of religion, culture, and
occupation in cities for centuries, and sedentary
and studious lives, may have occasioned the
difference in the complexion and contour between
the two : which in the upper country are not
so perceptible as in the Delta, or in the cities.
It is also probable that the Copt is of purer
blood : for in many of the fellahs the intermix-
ture of negro blood is plainly perceptible) both
in complexion and conformation.

Discarding then these fundamental errors in
the outset, and recognizing the fellah as the
aboriginal Egyptian by blood and descent, as
well as the landed proprietor, let us examine
his past and present lot in the home to which
he has adhered for ages, apparently as immove-
able from it as the Pyramids, reared by the toil,
sweat, and blood of his forefathers.

The condition of the man who aspires to no
higher lot than a living earned by daily manual
labour — of the daily drudge, tilling the fields from
sunrise to sunset, demanding only " a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work" — has in all ages and
countries been a hard and a pitiable one, and is
so still. It is so even to-day, in countries boast-
ing the brighter lights of Christianity and civili-
zation, separated as "the labouring class" are
even there by a wall higher than the Chinese,
from their more fortunate and richer brethren,

226 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

whose own good fortune and merit, or that of
their progenitors, has placed them higher in the
scale, and relieved them from the debasing
drudgery of incessant toil. Without preaching
either Chartism or Communism, or declaring
with the French philosopher that " all property
is robbery," every candid and thoughtful in-
quirer into the problem of our modern social
system must admit, that the unequal distribu-
tion of this world's goods, and the disparities
in the lot assigned to the different classes that
constitute the population of different countries
from birth to death, prove that we are still far
from securing " the greatest good of the greatest
number," even by our model institutions, in this
nineteenth century.

While Christendom can show, in its ripest
fruit, such cankers as large bodies of daily
labourers not only living " without God in the
world" — like dumb driven cattle — but even
ignorant of His existence, and dwelling under-
ground in a darkness that is moral as well as
physical — while large masses of peasantry all
over Europe are as stolid and ignorant, and
far more brutal, in their tempers and propen-
sities, than the oxen they drive ; it cannot too
loudly condemn Eastern rulers when a maddened
labouring class, in the great centre of our civili-
zation, can perpetrate the horrors of the Com-

THE OLD "HOUSE OF BONDAGE." 227

mime, and hundreds feast and revel in high
places, while millions drudge and pine and starve
in the midst of plenty. We, in our more favoured
countries, may not hold up our hands like the
Pharisee, and " thank God we are not as other
men ! " when the fellah's lot is compared with
that of the labourer elsewhere, dreary and forlorn
as the fellah's lot may he.

But it is exceptional in this — that as his
forerunners were in the time of the building of
the Pyramids, when Moses led his people out of
the " house of bondage," when Joseph was the
favourite at Pharaoh's Court, and when suc-
cessive waves of races swept over Egypt, each
leaving its mark; even so is he to-day, the
humble tiller of the soil, content with the
scantiest supply of food and raiment and shelter,
and the smallest wages for his daily work, that
ever kept together body and soul, in any clime
or age.

Coming down as late as the Norman invasion
of England, the Saxon churl's existence was
little if any better than the fellah's; for he
was not even a free man, he wore round his
neck the visible badge and collar that announced
his slavery, which the fellah never did, being
always nominally free : and was lodged and fed
scarcely better than the swine he tended. But
Gurth the swineherd has passed into tradition

228 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

now, and the Saxon blent with the Norman
blood makes the backbone of the country, the
vigorous English yeoman. The continental
peasant too has improved with the progress
of his country into something more than a
mere dumb drudge; but the Egyptian labourer
has not risen much above the level of that life
we see sculptured on stone, on the walls of the
old tombs and temples, thousands of years ago.
He is still the sole tiller of the soil, a tool in
the hands of merciless taskmasters, " a strong
ass crouching under burdens : " yet, strange to
say, as contented and merry a creature, as
apparently blind, deaf, and careless to his own
wrongs and hardships and ill usage, as the
patient ox and ass, who are his daily and con-
genial associates. To him the old " house of
bondage" seems to have been a peculiar heri-
tage, and to have lost many of its terrors ; for,
from generation to generation, he abides peace-
fully and uncomplainingly under the shadow of
its palms, and performs his allotted task, if not
unmurmuringly, at least patiently.

Modern research and patience, which have
disentombed and deciphered the old papyrus
records of the elder Egypt, have recently given
us a curious proof of the unchanged and appa-
rently unchangeable condition of the Egyptian
labourer. A papyrus now preserved in the

THE "ESTATE OF THE KUSTIC." 229

British Museum contains part of the correspon-
dence between Ameneman, the chief librarian of
Kamses the Great, and the poet of the period,
Pentatour, whose poem recording the achieve-
ments of the Egyptian monarch is engraved on
the walls of the temple of Karnak at Luxor. In
a letter written to this Tennyson of three
thousand years since, Ameneman thus describes
the condition of the Egyptian peasant of his
day. As the translator justly remarks, " one
seems to hear JFenelon or La Bruyere speaking
of the poverty, the ignorance, the sordid exist-
ence of the French peasant under Louis XIV.,"
only the Egyptian's lot was far the harder of
the two !

" Have you ever represented to yourself in
imagination," says Ameneman, "the estate of
the rustic who tills the ground ? Before he has
put the sickle to his crop the locusts have
blasted part thereof; then come the rats and
birds. If he is slack in housing his crop, the
thieves are on him. His horse dies of weariness
as it drags the wain. The tax-collector arrives ;
his agents are armed with clubs, he has negroes
with him who carry whips of palm branches.
They all cry, ' Give us your grain ! ' and he has
no way of avoiding their extortionate demands.
Next, the wretch is caught, bound, and sent off
to work, without wage, at the canals ; his wife is

230 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

taken and chained, his children are stripped and
plundered."

Without asserting or believing that the Egyp-
tian fellah's lot to-day is truly shadowed forth
in this terrible picture of the ancient Egyptian
labourer, sketched by a contemporary observer
more than three thousand years ago, I may still
suggest that, in some respects and in some
cases, it is applicable still, away from the great
cities and thoroughfares, which rest under the
eye of the Khedive and of the European popu-
lation; giving the Khedive the credit of not
being responsible for a tithe of the wrongs and
outrages perpetrated under cover of his name.
But the system that allows such outrages and
oppression, in despite of the efforts of a reform-
ing prince to rectify them, certainly demands a
complete and radical revision, in his own in-
terests, as well as in those of our common
humanity.

Without crediting all the stories that are
current, as to the treatment and condition of
the fellah population in the upper country and
remoter provinces, it must be evident to the eye
of the most careless observer, who passes any
time in the country — even in making the or-
dinary Nile voyage — that the fellahs are miser-
ably lodged in huts of mud, with no pretensions
either to cleanliness or comfort ; that they are

ASKING FOR BREAD AND RECEIVING STONES. 231

insufficiently clothed in dirty blue cotton shirts
(men and women), and underfed; while, at the
same time, they are overworked and overtaxed :
and the proportion of those who are either
comfortable in circumstances or condition is so
small as almost to count as nothing in the calcu-
lation ! This state of things certainly should
not be allowed to continue as a reproach, not
only to Egypt, but to our century ; and some-
thing should be done to raise these poor
creatures to the level of the labouring class else-
where; low as that level unfortunately is in too
many countries, calling themselves civilized and
Christian.

This should be the Khedive's first care, and
should take the precedence in his mind of grand
schemes for the extension of his empire, or for
public improvements, or for the erection of
costly palaces or piles of stone and marble in
his great cities ; lest the old cry again arise from
the suffering people, to curb his pride — " We ask
for bread, and you give us stones ! "

The " true believer," both Turkish and Arab,
lays great store by the teachings and acts of
the early Hebrew patriarchs, whose lives and
environment assimilated so much to his own,
and has deduced from both the rules which
govern his society to-day. His version, how-
ever, of the utterances and doings of the early

232 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Israelites varies considerably, in many instances,
from our accepted version of them ; and ' one of
these discrepancies relates to the proceedings
of Joseph during the seven years of famine that
succeeded the seven years of plenty in Egypt,
after his reading of Pharaoh's bad dream about
the seven fat and the seven lean kine.

The Moslem version of Joseph's proceeding
on this memorable occasion is, that he availed
himself of the distress and famine among the
people, and of his own superior foresight in
laying up large supplies of grain during the years
of plenty, by buying up from the starving people
one-fifth of the land of Egypt, in consideration
of corn supplied them at famine prices — an act
more creditable to his head than to his heart,
however it may redound to his business capa-
city. Hence the Arab conquerors of Egypt
established in Egypt a " vaJcf," or ownership
on the part of the Church of one-fifth of the
lands, together with a dime, or tax in the
shape of a tithe, upon the rest, which tax,
varying in sum and substance — always heavy,
and recently most oppressive — paid in kind
or produce instead of money, and thus made
as elastic as the conscience of the tax-gatherer,
has continued to be levied until this day. The
Eastern tax-gatherer, from immemorial time, has
been a leech of the worst description ; for even

UNJUST COLLECTOES OF TAXES. 233

Matthew, who afterwards was numbered among
the saints subsequently to his change of heart
on encountering Christ, is noted in the New
Testament as having been " an unjust collector
of taxes ; " and his lineal descendants in nature,
if not in blood, still abound throughout the
Eastern world.

When, following in the footsteps of the
Greek, the Roman, and the Goth, Amrou led
his victorious army, under the flag of the
Crescent, to take possession of Egypt, and the
Holy Land became also the spoil of the infidel,
the old land titles were left undisturbed, though
tribute and taxation were imposed on the
proprietors. Through all the anarchy that
succeeded the Arab occupation (including the
brilliant but oppressive sway of the Mamelukes,
and brief episode of Napoleon's memorable occu-
pation of Egypt), the possession of the soil still
remained in the hands of the fellahs, with the
exception of a small portion held by the ruling
race, more for their occupation and pleasure
than for their profit. But when, early in the
present century, Mehemet Ali was named by
the Sublime Porte as Pacha of Egypt, and
after he had secured his absolute control of
the country and people, though still professing
allegiance to the Porte, by the slaughter of
the Mamelukes, he turned his attention to the

234 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

land question in most Napoleonic fashion.
There were two kinds of land — one held in
fee and cultivated by the peasant proprietors ; the
other the Ahadiehs, or waste lands. Mehemet
Ali finding or pretending that many of the
lands of both qualities were insufficiently culti-
vated, or not at all, in consequence of the
insufficiency of the population, and that conse-
quently the taxes due his Government therefor
were or could not be paid in sufficient sums to
meet his wants — which were ever increasing —
for the great schemes of public improvement he
meditated, disturbed the existing arrangements
by making large grants of land to his favourites
to cultivate, taken partly from one class, partly
from another, sometimes dispossessing the
original proprietors.

When, after his long and brilliant rule of
more than forty years, his grandson Abbas suc-
ceeded to the throne (the mere episode of the
seventy days' reign of Ibrahim counting for
nothing in this regard), there was an immediate
and radical change of policy in this respect.
For Abbas, with all his other faults, was the
staunch friend and supporter of the fellah
in all his ancient rights and privileges, which
he revived and secured to him both by edicts
and by practical action. While depriving the
rich of the lands given them by Mehemet Ali,

THE POLICY OF THE VICEROY. 235

that they might revert to their original owners :
despoiling the wealthy, to whom he was both
unjust and cruel : and making himself an object
of suspicion and terror to the members of his
own family: he was the constant friend and
patron of the lower class ; which history proves
to have been no exceptional case with despots.

Be this as it may, however, the fact remains,
whatever the prompting reason may have been ;
and / the Egyptian fellah really has more cause-
to-day to bless the memory of the gloomy and
cruel Abbas, than that of the generous-tempered,
open-hearted Said, in so far as this land question
is concerned.

For Said reversed, and to a considerable extent
undid the restitution made by Abbas in respect
to the land tenure ;) reverting more to the policy
of his grandfather— 1-imposing additional burdens
of taxation upon it, and parcelling out again
much of what he declared to be public lands,
because their proprietors could not cultivate or
properly utilize them.

The policy of Ismail Khedive has differed
from that of all his predecessors ; for, while he
has imposed more and heavier taxes upon land,
its products, and its occupants, so as to wring
treble the revenues out of it ever obtained by
Said, his immediate predecessor : he has secured
for himself, in his own name and those of his

236 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

sons and daughters, fully one-fifth of the best
and most valuable of the lands of Egypt under
> actual cultivation; but one- half of which, the
title being in his own name, he offers to his
personal creditors, in extinction of his Daira
debt.

When he mounted the throne in 1863 — just
fourteen years ago — his personal real estate was
comparatively small in quantity. Since that
time he has bought out the property of his half-
brother Mustafa and his uncle Halim, for many
millions respectively, for which two of the
Egyptian loans were issued; thus creating the
confusion between the public and private in-
debtedness, which has rendered the task of suc-
cessive financiers, sent from abroad to clear up
these accounts, so difficult and perplexing.*

The present condition of the fellah, and of
the real estate of Egypt is as follows : — There
are 5,000,000 of feddans under cultivation. Of
these, 1,000,000 are Khedivial or family property;
the rest, outside of a few large landed proprietors,
such as Nubar and Cherif Pachas, and other
high dignitaries of the Court or distant members
of the blood royal, amounting to say 3,500,000
feddans, is still the property of the fellaheen, or
native peasantry. Their lands are subject, how-

* See Mr. Sandar's statement of the Khedive's Daira property
and the supposed income therefrom in Appendix.

OLD AND NEW TAXES. 237

ever, to a most grinding taxation, varying from
£1 10s. to £3 10s. per feddan per annum — some
say even more — by irregular impositions ; in
most instances giving the cultivator, or peasant
proprietor, only enough out of his earnings to
eke out a bare subsistence, and afford such scanty
and insufficient shelter, food, and clothing as
keeps life together in himself, his family, and
the camel, ox, or ass he employs in his daily
labour.

The taxes, too, are taken in kind, not in cash ;
so that the tax-collector can levy an additional
amount by his valuation of the crop.

Then too comes the new tax borrowed from
France — the octroi, which is estimated at eight
per cent, ad valorem; and is also liable to in-
crease the same way.

There is also a tax upon date-trees bearing
fruit, a tax upon trades and professions, a tax
even upon donkey-boys, who have to pay for
their badges. In fact, taxation seems modelled
upon the old Eoman model, as mentioned in the
Scripture, where the edict went out from Caesar
that " all the world should be taxed ; " and that
relic of the old Koman rule has certainly sur-
vived in full force and vigour in Egypt, supple-
mented by more modern inventions, such as the
octroi.

But the heaviest imposition of all is that of

238 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the corveej which, nominally abolished, except
in case of necessary labour on the canals for
irrigation, is still enforced on a large scale in
the upper country, for the benefit of the Khe-
dive's sugar estates, and those of his family and
particular favourites : where for three months
in the year large bodies of men are taken in
gangs to work, receiving neither wages nor food
for themselves and their camels — their wives
having to bake and bring bread for their hus-
bands, and the men to supply and feed their own
cattle.

Domestic slavery in Egypt, and the internal
slave-trade which has long supplied its demands
and those of Turkey in Europe — against which
European philanthropy raises its voice so loudly,
and against which all its shafts are levelled —
great as their abuses may be, are far more diffi-
cult to reach and remedy, than this other cancer
in the breast of Egyptian society, to extirpate
which might be a slow, but would certainly be a
comparatively easy task, as well as a profitable
one, to the Khedive and his country. Now that
he has offered to surrender up the manage-
ment and proceeds of his vast sugar estates to
his creditors, that they may be placed under
European control and direction, the main
cause for the continuance of the eorve'e, or of
compulsory labour, either in the fields or on the

THE NATIVE TAX-PAYER. 239

private canals which irrigate them, will cease to
exist ; and the Khedive himself no longer be
tempted to resort to it, under pretexts however
specious.

Let us therefore hope that, under these new
circumstances, the fellah's lot may be amelio-
rated, and his opportunity of getting " a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work " out of his own fields
be no longer prevented ; as well as that, in pro-
viding for the payment of the foreign creditors,
and presenting a good showing in the monthly
receipts in the Caisse presided over by the
European controllers, equal consideration may
be shown for the native tax-payer, as for those
he is made to pay out of the sweat of his brow,
for money which never profited him.

I find some statements so a propos to this in
the Alexandria correspondence of the Times, of
a recent date, that I cannot forbear to quote it
in confirmation of my own comments on this
head. The correspondent says —

" The war-tax which was voted by the
Egyptian notables is being rapidly encashed, and
the usual mode of collection is being followed,
as regards that portion which falls on the land.
The sheikhs of the villages are summoned to
the chief towns. The moudirs, or governors,
tell them how much is needed and when. A
rough assessment is nominally followed, and the

240 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

authorities are supposed to be guided by certain
fiscal regulations. But these paper restrictions
are not too strictly observed ; all the moudir
really insists upon is that the money be forth-
coming; and it goes hard with the sheik who
fails to squeeze the right amount out of his
people. The tax is levied as an increased
charge of ten per cent, on all previous imposts,
after the manner of the centimes additionels
which provide for provincial administration in
France. It will realize about half a million
sterling. But that amount is increased by a
voluntary subscription, a patriotic fund, raised
from the native moneyed class, which will pro-
vide an additional £100,000."

The simplicity of this contrivance for squeezing
the fellah, is only equalled by its completeness.
Appeals to " patriotism,'7 made in such a shape,
cannot fail to meet a satisfactory response ; but
can the fellah bear these additional impositions,
broad as his back may be ?

The correspondent goes on to confirm yet
more strongly my previous assertions as to the
present condition of the labouring class, and his
testimony coming from a witness on the spot
carries conviction with it. He says —

" A contract was concluded yesterday by the
Government with a Manchester house, which
much improves the prospect of the July coupon ;

THE FELLAHEEN. 241

<£500,000 is to be advanced, one-half now, one-
half in London, on the 10th of July. The
Government on its side undertakes to deliver by
that date, in successive deliveries of 50,000
ardebs, 600,000 ardebs of wheat and beans,
which are to be paid for at the market price of
the day in Alexandria. This produce consists
wholly of taxes paid by the peasants in kind ; and
when one thinks of the poverty-stricken, over-
driven, underfed fellaheen in their miserable
hovels, working late and early to fill the pockets
of the creditors, the punctual payment of the
coupon ceases to be wholly a subject of gratifica-
tion. The fellah would open his eyes if he were
told that taxes are only payment for benefits
received ; a contribution to a fund which is
wholly expended for the public good ? "

With this confirmatory testimony as to the
fellah's actual condition and prospects, under
the existing state of things, I close this chapter,
which could readily be made a volume, and even
then the half would not have been told.

To see the Egyptian fellah as the traveller sees
him, he is a most amusing, picturesque, and
Oriental object, in perfect keeping with the
scenery which surrounds him — whether jogging
along on his small donkey, his feet almost touch-
ing the ground, in his peculiar costume, which
scanty as it is suffices for his comfort in that

242 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

climate ; or labouring in the fields, accompanied
by his strange-looking water-ox, half cow, half
hippopotamus in appearance ; or, when his day's
work is over, squatting upon his hams in that
position which only he can comfortably assume,
and which would certainly entail a cramp in the
leg or a back somersault on any less-experienced
practitioner. In spite of his dirt, his rags, his
half- starved appearance, he looks happy, or if
not happy content with his lot, hard as it seems
to the stranger. If "happiness be indeed our
being's end and aim," then must the poor fellah,
who so many have compassionated and so many
more despised, truly have more nearly attained
that end and aim, than the wise and great ones
of the earth, to whom increase of knowledge and
of worldly goods and honour have only brought
increase of care. But should curiosity, or some
higher motive, prompt the stranger to follow him
home and carefully picking his way through the
filthy narrow paths that cannot be called streets,
peer into the interior of the mud hut — into the
single apartment where his family and all his
visible worldly goods are crowded, half hidden by
the smoke which fills the windowless den, without
chimney or other aperture to admit light or air,
save the open doorway — all his senses of sight, of
smell, of hearing, of touch, of taste, will be equally
revolted. Yet in huts like these do the great

THE NEW HOUSE OF BONDAGE. 243

mass of the fellah population live, and propagate
blear-eyed and unhealthy children, from genera-
tion to generation ; secreting and hoarding what
money they may earn, without any attempt or
desire to improve a condition and style of life
which would prove utterly unbearable and im-
measurably wretched to any other agricultural
class in the world. Yet the almost untold
millions squandered by Egyptian rulers on works
of vanity, and on useless expeditions for centu-
ries past, have been extracted out of this appa-
rently impoverished and half-starving population,
and each year renews the ever-recurring miracle,
to the astonishment of the rest of mankind.

Is it not time this tragi-comedy, which has in
it far less of laughter than of tears, should be
brought to a conclusion ; and the curtain be
allowed to fall on a redeemed and regenerated
race — even though residing still in the old
" house of bondage " ?

244 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE XIV.

SCIONS OF THE KOYAL HOUSE OF MEHEMET ALL

The sons of Ismail, and other scions of the royal house, yet surviving
— The sons of Abbas and of Said Pachas blasted in the bud — The
sons of the Khedive — Mohamed Tewfik, heir presumptive — His
brothers Hussein and Hassan — Characteristics of each — The younger
sons — How the, Khedive is educating his children — Their uncle
Halim Pacha, formerly heir apparent under the old rule — His
character — Description of how he hunted the gazelle with hawk
and hound — Eevival in Egypt of a mediaeval sport — Halim's
prospects.

THE sons of the Khedive have been most care-
fully trained and educated, and if they do not
prove clever and useful men the fault is theirs,
not his ; for neither expense nor care has been
spared on their intellectual and physical develop-
ment. European tutors have been furnished
them from a very early age, who have indoc-
trinated them in the usual branches of a liberal
education, including the languages of Europe, or
at least a portion of them ; and the younger
ones have also been sent to schools and univer-
sities in France, England, and Germany, to

THE HEIR APPARENT. 245

learn as much as it is possible to prevail on
princes to acquire — moral suasion only being
possible in such cases ; the more stringent
methods adopted with "common people," of
course, never being dreamed of where " blood
royal " is concerned.

I believe the heir apparent, Prince Mohamed
Tewfik, has never enjoyed the advantages of
foreign travel, nor a foreign curriculum, but has
been brought up and educated at home. Yet he
does credit to his teachers, both as to mind and
manners, being one of the most modest and at
the same time one of the best-informed young
men to be met with anywhere ; universally re-
spected as well as liked by foreigners as well as
natives : though he shrinks from rather than
courts observation or society. Whether this
proceeds from native modesty or from policy, the
position he occupies being a more delicate and
difficult one in the East than elsewhere, I am
not sufficiently intimate with him to say ; but
my impression, formed from my own oppor-
tunities of observation, was that the former
cause had as much to do with it as the latter.
Yet his modesty and retiring manner by no
means indicate a lack either of will or of firm-
ness ; on the contrary, I should judge he was
naturally obstinate, and very hard to move from
the path he had selected, either by persuasion or

246 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

threats. Less politic and plausible than his
father, Prince Tewfik impresses you with belief
in his sincerity, and that he means what he says
— qualities which very clever men often are de-
ficient in. He does not affect so much of the
Western air and habits as do his father and two
brothers, although he wears the Stambouli
costume ; and is reputed to be a conscientious
though liberal Mussulman in creed and practice.
His private character is above reproach. In the
great whispering gallery of that Court, and of
the Frank community at Cairo, I have never
heard a whisper breathed against his domestic
virtues or private character. In short, if I were
asked to point out the model gentleman among
the younger native generation at Cairo (in the
higher sense of that much-abused word), I
should select Prince Tewfik as one of its most
superior types ; although in the graces, and in
the social circle, one of his brothers may
surpass him.

Prnice Tewfik is decidedly Oriental, both in
face and figure ; of the Circassian type, with
square head, heavy frame, dark eyes and hair,
and with something solid and substantial
stamped bodily and mentally upon him. Devoid
apparently of some of the more shining qualities,
slow and even hesitating in speech, and not
affecting brilliancy or even smartness, his face,

PRINCE HUSSEIN. 247

eye, and smile inspire confidence. You feel
that here is a man whom you can trust.

He is the husband of but one wife, and re-
ported to be very domestic in his habits and
tastes. He is Minister of the Interior, and said
to be an energetic and indefatigable public
officer. Should it be his fate to mount the
throne of Egypt, I predict that he will prove a
prudent, humane, and sensible ruler, and do
credit to himself and good to his people ;
although I have seen such strange and sudden
transformations take place in Egyptian princes
after becoming viceroys, that my prediction is
made with some hesitation.

The next eldest son is the Prince Hussein, 'at
present Minister of Finance, vice the late Mouf-
fetich, departed. He, in appearance, manners,
and character, is the reverse of his elder brother.
Slight and wiry of frame, with an active and
springy step and quick movements, with sharp,
shrewd features and restless eye, Prince Hus-
sein is a man who impresses you as well fitted
for intrigue ; with boldness enough to carry out
what he had planned without regard to the con-
sequences. He seems to have inherited much
of his father's restless spirit, without the caution
which has ever accompanied it in his progenitor ;
and is certainly a quick, clever young man,
though he does not impress you, with all his

248 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

boldness, as being as open-hearted and sincere
as his brother Tewfik. Although, I believe, he
has never visited Europe, he is quite French in
his dress and address, and figures in the quad-
rilles and even the waltz at the royal balls,
with the grace of a practised man about town.
In fact, he is quite French in appearance, and
can rattle off calembours as fast as any petit
creve of the boulevards. He is also said to be an
extremely good business man, in so far as he is
allowed to exert that ability — the Khedive being
king and all the ministers echoes, since the death
of the Mouffetich, the only one among them to
whom he gave more than the shadow of power,
after Nubar Pacha (who refused to be a shadow)
got his conge. The young prince has no pleasant
position, being compelled to act as a financial
" buffer " between the irate creditors of the
Government or the Khedive, and his father.
The latter (who is by no means so visible nowa-
days as he used to be) is ingenious enough to
put much of the burden of " to-morrow and to-
morrow," sung to the creditors, on his son,
whose nominal duties as Finance Minister are
really performed by the foreign commissioners,
Messrs. Eomaine and De Malaret, one of whom
receives, and the other of whom disburses, all
of the hard cash to be collected in Egypt.

If Prince Hussein resembles a Frenchman,

PKINCE HASSAN. 249

his brother Hassan, late Minister of War, and
now in command of the Egyptian contingent in
Turkey, is more like a German in appearance
and address ; his manner of pronouncing Eng-
lish, which he understands, having heen some
time at Oxford University, being decidedly
German. The same may be said of his manner,
which is short and abrupt, though he has enjoyed
greater advantages than his brothers. Of his
capacity, either civil or military, he has as yet
given no proofs. He may show the stuff he is
made of, in his present position.

The mystery which still enshrouds the Abys-
sinian campaign, in which he participated, veils
also the part he played therein, the accounts of
which are very conflicting, and by no means
confirmatory of the florid accounts given in the
despatches of the Egyptian generalissimo, Ratib
Pacha, who is generally believed to have imi-
tated Falstaff more than Hotspur in his conduct
of that most unfortunate and fruitless campaign.
The prince has now an opportunity of winning
his spurs if he pleases, for if he goes to the
front he will have to show the mettle he is
made of, against the hereditary enemy of his
race.

His duties as War Minister were chiefly
nominal; the real management of that depart-
ment, for the last six or seven years, having

250 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

been in the hands of the American staff officers,
at the head of whom is General Stone (now
Stone Pacha Ferik), and General Loring (Loring
Pacha Ferik), who has had a separate command
at Alexandria, covering the protection of that
place, and the line of sea-coast from Alexandria
to Port Sai'd.

These old and experienced soldiers, military
men by early training and participation in
bloody wars on the other side of the Atlantic,
aided by a picked corps of younger officers, chiefly
Americans, have brought the Egyptian army
into a fine state of organization and discipline,
and made the coast fortifications very strong
and effective against any fleet or force seeking
to invade Egypt — a contingency happily not
likely to occur during the present war, if the
solemn assurances of Kussian diplomacy are to
be relied upon ; but against which, nevertheless,
the Khedive is and has long been preparing his
troops and defences.

Three or four other younger sons of the
Khedive are being as carefully trained and edu-
cated as their elder brothers. I believe most of
the brethren are by different mothers, but the
Khedive is certainly a good father, however
miscellaneous his taste in the matter of mothers.

His daughters he has married chiefly to their
cousins, richly endowing them all, and insisting

HALIM PACHA. 251

that their husbands shall have no other legal
wives — the Mussulman law allowing four at a
time to all " true believers;" a privilege of
which the Khedive has fully availed himself,
and probably deprecates for his sons and sons-in-
law, from the fruits of his own experience.

One of his daughters married Toussoun Pacha,
the only son of his predecessor Said, to whom
Ismail behaved well and generously, making
him Minister of Public Instruction, and furnish-
ing him liberally with lands and money. He
died about a year ago, much regretted for his
amiability and generosity of character, in which
he resembled his father, without possessing his
stronger qualities. The son of Abbas also
died young at Constantinople. Mustafa, the
Khedive's brother, who was set aside from the
succession by the new firman from the Porte, is
also dead, and his family were sent for to
Constantinople, and treated in a most princely
manner by the Khedive. But Halim Pacha,
the younger son of Mehemet Ali and uncle to
Ismail, still lives, and casts a shadow over the
succession of Tewfik, to secure which his claims
under the original firman granted Mehemet
Ali were set aside by the late Sultan Abdul-
Aziz. Halim, like Mustafa, has been kept at
Constantinople, where both were in high favour,
and given high positions in the Government, as

252 THE KHEDIVE'S EGPYT.

a rod in terrorem for the Khedive and his sons,
should they prove refractory, or stint the supplies
of backsheesh, which every " Commander of the
Faithful " has an undying thirst for, unquenched
and unquenchable by any millions however
often repeated. How much of the gold ex-
tracted from the sweat and blood of Egypt, or
from the pockets of the foreign creditor or
bondholder, has passed into the capacious maw
of the ogre at Constantinople, during the last
twelve years, while these two princes of the
blood were held as hostages and rods at Stam-
boul, no one knows save one man, and he doubt-
less will never divulge it. But certain it is that
many millions of pounds annually have been
sent there, as sops to the Cerberus, for favours
granted in return, or preservation of the
statu quo.

Mustafa Pacha was a great political in-
triguer, and probably played his part in these
proceedings ; but the bold frank character of
Halim Pacha frees him from similar imputa-
tions. Personally he is one of the most remark-
able men of his line, prolific as it ever has been
of strong men and original ones.

Born of a Bedouin mother, the wife of
Mehemet Ali's vigorous old age, Prince Halim
partakes of the peculiarities of his mother's race,
being originally spare and wiry in frame and

HIS HOME AT SHOUBRA. 253

muscle, lithe as a leopard, a hunter like Nimrod,
a horseman unequalled even among his mother's
centaur-like race, with quick flashing eyes and
sharp features, dark eyes and hair, and Arab
complexion. He has grown stouter and heavier
since residing at Constantinople, but his original
type was such as I have described. He was an
excellent French scholar, and a man of consider-
able culture, as well as vivacity ; extremely
hospitable, and fond of entertaining his Frank
friends at his palace at the Shoubra Gardens, left
him by his father as an inheritance, but which
has now become the property of the Khedive,
who has suffered the palace to fall into ruins,
and the gardens to go to decay. Here Halim
Pacha used to live and enjoy life, until quarrels
between himself and the Khedive drove him out
of Egypt, and caused him to sell out his
property there to the Khedive, for which one of
the outstanding loans was issued. I am not
aware that Halim has, in any manner, formally re-
nounced his pretensions to the Egyptian throne
under the original firman ; neither do I know
whether he still cherishes hopes in that regard,
for I have not seen him for many years past.
He was in London recently for a short time, and
it was then whispered that he might possibly
have been sent or have come on a political
mission, relative to the Egyptian succession.

2S4 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

I imagine however that the general acquies-
cence of the Great Powers to the change of the
succession, informal as it may have been, will
prove a har to the claims of Prince Halim, even
should he strive to press them : and that the
accession of Prince Tewfik is as safe as any
political possibility can be.

Of the narrow escape of Prince Halim from
death, through his own quickness and presence
of mind, when his nephew Achmet was drowned
in the Nile, I have already spoken ; and shall
conclude this sketch of him with a detail of the
manner in which he used to practise his favourite
sport, in chasing the gazelle with hawk and
hound over the desert.

Although the fTeetness of the Arab horse and
Syrian greyhound are proverbial, and seem capa-
ble of outstripping anything but the wind, yet,
fleet as are its pursuers, the gazelle is fleeter still;
and hence the revival on these Eastern plains of
the mediaeval pastime and "joyous science" of
hawking ; bringing the children of the air in aid
of hunter, horse, and hound, and assailing the
helpless quarry from earth and sky at once.

It was a gay sight to see this Eastern knight
on his fleet Arab courser, attended by a princely
retinue of friends and followers (but " no lady
fair," which Eastern etiquette forbade), sally forth
at early dawn from his residence in the famed

HUNTING THE GAZELLE. 255

gardens of Shoubra, with hawk on fist, and the
Syrian greyhounds in leash, led after him, only to
be unleashed when the quarry was raised on the
desert, a few miles distant.

The Prince himself, usually attired in French
costume — for he is an educated man, and very
French in his tastes — on these occasions wore
the native dress ; and his suite, with their gay
and picturesque costumes, and costly trappings
bedecked with gems and cloth of gold, presented
a most gallant and striking appearance ; for
among these semi- civilized nomads of Egypt
and Syria, the passion for the chase is only second
to that for war, the children of Mmrod and of
Ishmael retaining still the tastes of their remote
progenitors.

The Syrian greyhound is a very beautiful
specimen of the race. Smaller and with less
length of limb than the English greyhound,
and consequently with a shorter stride, the
rapidity of his movements, and the toughness
and tenacity of his muscles, render him no un-
worthy scion of the stock to which his British
cousin belongs. Moreover his long feathery-
tufted tail seems to act as a rudder to him, when
in full flight across those breezy plains — for a
strong wind is ever blowing over the desert —
an advantage which marks the difference be-
tween the Syrian and other greyhounds, to

256 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

whom, in other respects, he bears the closest
affinity. In the eyes and faces of the choicest
specimens of these dogs, there shines an expres-
sion of winning and almost human intelligence ;
yet, once launched in pursuit of game, they are as
blood-thirsty as the sleuth-hound. The dog in
Egypt, as throughout the East, with this excep-
tion is a homeless and houseless Vagabond and
semi-savage, prowling in packs, acting as scaven-
ger only, and never domesticated, because con-
sidered " unclean " by Mussulman law and
custom. The Prince Halim had the courage to
brave this prejudice, and kept his greyhounds
for the chase. But he also kept another and
more curious class of creatures for the hunting
of the gazelle, probably the fastest in its move-
ments of any wingless animal, viz., his hunting
hawks, which seemed the genuine descendants
of the " falcon gentle," which was wont to afford
such rare sport to our ancestors in the Middle
Ages. As the cavalcade pranced forth from the
gates of the city, and especially from the old
Bab el Nasr, or " Gate of Victory," which
leads to the desert — past those beautiful but
crumbling castellated memorials, the tombs and
palaces of the Memlook sultans, now falling into
ruins — the hooded hawks, perched on the right
hands of the prince and his friends, constituted
a curious feature of the knightly retinue.

THE "FALCON GENTLE" OF EGYPT. 257

The hawk used for this purpose is not the
ordinary large Egyptian one, which hovers over
the city of Cairo, poised in air on its wide
wings, or circling around in search of its quarry ;
but a smaller and fiercer bird, desert born and
bred, with keen eyes and sharp talons, of which
the larger brother stands in wholesome awe.
These birds, trained much as were the mediaeval
falcons, seem to love the chase as much as their
master, although their quarry be not the heron,
but the gazelle. Their services were only
brought into requisition after the chase had
continued some time, and as an adjunct to the
pursuit of men, dogs, and horses, all concen-
trating their energies against the life and liberty
of the most lovely, graceful, and inoffensive of
wild creatures, almost the sole tenants of these
arid wastes.

After advancing a few miles into the desert,
which presents one flat, dead, unbroken level of
hard gritty soil (not sand), unrelieved by any
shrub, grass, flower, or tree, bounded only by the
horizon, and producing almost the illusion of a
sea view, suddenly half a dozen slender shapely
forms spring up, and stand in bold relief against
the sky, with heads erect like statuary, some half
mile distant.

The sight seems at once to infuse new fire
and vigour into the horses, dogs, and men, all

258 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

of whom are immediately launched like thunder-
bolts in the direction of the quarry, which
pausing motionless for a moment, break into
full flight the next, bounding marvellous dis-
tances each spring, and soon leaving even the
fleet greyhounds toiling hopelessly in the rear :
the distance between them visibly increasing,
as the tireless gazelles almost fly forwards, in-
spired by fear. The scene now becomes a most
animated, exciting, and picturesque one, with
the floating burnouses of the Bedouin or Egyp-
tian riders, and the gay attire of horse and man,
and the . gallant Arab coursers stretching out
to full speed, with expanded nostrils and pro-
truding eyes, and the feathery tails of the
Syrian greyhounds waving like banners, as they
bound after the flying gazelles.

But vain are the efforts of all their enemies
to gain upon, or even to keep pace with, the
graceful children of the desert. Horses, men,
and dogs are falling rapidly behind : and even the
forms of the gazelles are becoming indistinct
and with difficulty discernible, except to the
eagle eyes of the prince and his Bedouins, when
a new ally is summoned to the assistance of the
hunters, and a new foe launched at the heads
of the triumphant fugitives.

Eising in his shovel- stirrups, in full career,
with the grace and dexterity of an Eastern rider,

HAWK AND QUAKRY. 259

Prince Halim, slipping off the hood from the
head of the hawk he carries on his right hand,
with a peculiar shrill cry launches the bird into
the air in the direction of the fast-disappearing
quarry. Thus released, the hawk circles rapidly
upward until almost lost to sight, a mere speck
suspended in blue ether, and seemingly motion-
less in the cloudless sky, blazing under the fierce
Eastern sun in a flood of light. A moment
later, the hawk can be seen shooting downwards
like a lightning flash on the gazelle, buffeting
its head and blinding its eyes, with the rapid
blows of its strong wings. Almost frantic with
fear and fury, the gazelle soon frees itself from
its feathered assailant by striking its head upon
the ground, and then resumes its flight ; but the
relief is only momentary, for the pertinacious
assailant as soon as shaken off renews the
assault ; coming down on the antelope's head
again and again, releasing it only long enough
to avoid being crushed or impaled upon its sharp
brow horns. Blinded at last ar;d wearied by these
attacks, confused by the cries of the approach-
ing huntsmen, the terrified and exhausted gazelle
falls an easy prey to the greyhounds and pur-
suing horsemen.

Sometimes a young or badly trained bird
would fall a victim to his interference : for the
efforts of the gazelle to destroy as well as shake

260 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

off his tormentors, inspired by the instinct of
self-preservation, are often as energetic as piteous
to witness.

The hunt of Prince Halim over, the grey-
hounds re-leashed, the hawks hooded once more,
the heads of the panting Arah steeds are again
turned homewards ; though the desert-born
horses, snuffing eagerly their fresh native air,
seem reluctant to return citywards, fretting and
chafing under the powerful bit and shovel-spur
which compel obedience. This bit is strong
enough to break a horse's jaw, with a cruel,
sharp iron spike pressing on the tongue, so that
a rider who sharply reins in his steed in full
career draws blood, and lacerates the horse's
tongue. The shovel-shaped stirrup, too, with
its sharp edges gores the side of the animal,
when spurred, like a knife ; so that obedience to
the rider's will is easily enforced by a reckless
or cruel rider.

Eeturning at mid-day through the desert under
the blazing sun, whose insufferable glare blinds
and dazzles European vision, and against which
even Bedouin or Egyptian protects himself by
the projecting cofia or silk shawl drawn over
the head and face like a projecting hood, the
stranger, if fortunate, may witness the strange
and startling optical delusion of the mirage, so
often described, yet of which the reality is so

PKINCE HALIM'S CLAIMS. 261

immeasurably superior to the description. For
suddenly, out of what was a moment before but
void space bounded by a distant horizon, seems
to rise as if by enchantment the semblance
of stately cities, with domes, mosques, and
minarets, and long moving processions of men
and camels ; or, more mocking still to dizzy
brain and parched palate, the counterfeit pre-
sentment of clear pools of water, embowered in
shady palm groves. The Turkish bath, the mid-
day siesta preceded by chibouque or nargileh
of Latikia or Persian tumbac, constitute the fit
pendant to the day's chase.

Such used to be the favourite sport of Prince
Halim's youth. He is now a middle-aged man,
but a year younger than the Khedive, and they
tell me has grown stout and indolent in the
enervating air of Constantinople.

But as the last surviving son of the great
founder of the house that has ruled Egypt for
the last half century, a certain interest attaches
to him ; to which the future of Egypt, dark with
clouds, must add a keener edge. For the pre-
sent it is the policy of the Great Powers to
preserve the statu quo in Egypt, and to sanction
the change of succession.

262 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTER XV.

IRRIGATION AND THE BARRAGE.

"The life of Egypt" — The barrage — Proposition to pull down the
Pyramids to construct it — A French engineer's perilous predicament
— How he extricated himself — Sa'id Pacha's new city on a medal ! —
Egyptian irrigation — How it is managed — Proposed substitute for
the irrigation of the Delta — Something about the barrage.

IN former days, before there was railway com-
munication with Cairo, little more than twenty
years ago, the traveller who ascended the Nile
in a dahabieh or small steamer used to be
struck by the sight of what seemed at once a
turreted castle, a bridge, and a breakwater across
the stream. This was the barrage, commenced
by Mehemet Ah*, continued by Abbas fitfully,
and abandoned by Sai'd; although at one time
he conceived the idea of completing this great
work, on which both Mougel and Linant Beys,
the Franco-Egyptian engineers, spent much
time and labour, and to which, I was told, about
three millions of pounds sterling had been con-
tributed. Sai'd was so full of the idea that he

THE BARRAGE AND THE PYRAMIDS. 263

actually founded a city there, gave a three days'
fete on the spot, and struck off a silver medal to
commemorate it ; but the city stopped there,
and so did the works.

A curious story was told me by one of the
French engineers, in connection with the barrage
and Abbas Pacha. Summoned by the viceroy
to one of his desert palaces hurriedly, the
engineer repaired with all speed to see him.
He was at once greeted with this suggestion : —

"You are always troubling me about your
barrage," said Abbas, " and an idea has struck
me. Those great masses of stone, the Pyramids,
are standing there useless. Why not take the
stone from them to do the work ? Is it not a
good idea?"

" Pull down the Pyramids!" stammered the
amazed engineer, aghast at the idea that his
name would go down to posterity in such a
connection.

"Yes," impatiently repeated Abbas. "Why
not ? Are you silly enough to attach any rever-
ence to those ugly, useless piles of stone ! See
if you cannot make use of them for the barrage.
They have helped to build Cairo already."

The Frenchman made his salaam and retired
in despair. What was he to do ? The obstinacy
of Abbas was ever proof against argument, and
he brooked no contradiction to his will, however

264 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

extravagant the whim that prompted it. To
refuse to carry out his orders would be equiva-
lent to losing his place ; to obey would, to his
excited imagination, stamp his name with an
immortality of infamy, as the destroyer of the
Pyramids.

Tossing restlessly on his sleepless bed all
night, a bright idea flashed upon him. He
would appeal to Abbas's avarice, to escape the
desecration of the great historic monuments of
Egypt. Taking a large sheet of paper, he
covered it over with long rows of figures and
calculations, and armed with this, returned to
the viceroy the next day.

" What is all this ? " growled Abbas, glancing
suspiciously at the sheet covered with what to
him were cabalistic figures, and frowning darkly
on the engineer. " What rubbish is this you
bring me ? "

" Highness ! " was the reply, " after re-
ceiving your orders to remove the stones from
the Pyramids for the barrage, I deemed it my
duty to make a rough calculation of the cost ;
and here it is."

" Well, well," said Abbas impatiently, "what
do I know about your hieroglyphics ? Tell me,
what will it cost? "

The engineer immediately named an enormous
sum for the cost of taking down and transporting

A NAKKOW ESCAPE. 265

the stones ; and after some severe cross- question-
ing from the viceroy, who seemed suspicious of
his good faith, finally persuaded him to abandon
the design of pulling down the Pyramids—
sooner than aid in doing which, he swore to me,
he would have resigned and left the service.

(i Figurez vous, monsieur!" he said, with
flushed face, and eyes almost starting from their
sockets, as he recalled the recollection. " Fancy
your own feelings, at the thought that your
own children would be pointed out everywhere
as those of the man who destroyed the Pyramids ! "
and his hair bristled on his head with horror, at
the thought of the peril he, and his children (he
had none, by-the-by), had so narrowly escaped.

The Nile has often and truly been called
" the life of Egypt," for the fertility of the soil
is derived from its deposits and irrigation. The
barrage was intended to irrigate the whole
Delta, and the design certainly was a grand one.
I am too ignorant of engineering, to express any
opinion as to the possibility of achieving the
purpose aimed at by such a breakwater : or
the reasons of the failure and abandonment of
the uncompleted work, in relation to which I
know the Khedive has lately consulted several
eminent English engineers.

The following particulars as to the great and
vital topic of irrigation in Egypt, and incident-

266 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

ally as to the barrage, I have procured from
persons competent to give it, from long and
careful study of both subjects. The whole
matter is more simple than it seems ; the chief
question to be considered is the question of cost.

I believe it is estimated that £1,500,000 would
put the barrage in successful operation.

As already stated, the whole cultivated area
of Egypt owes its fertility to the Nile inunda-
tion. At high Nile the water is heavily charged
with sedimentary matters, and these matters are
deposited as the velocity of the flood-stream
slackens ; and so the bed of the river and the
submerged lands on either side of it have been
gradually raised. If the river were not carefully
embanked, the lands immediately contiguous to
the stream would be flooded to a depth of about
three feet at ordinary high Nile, whilst those
more remote from the river would be submerged
to as much as three times that depth. These
conditions are obviously all that could be desired
for the effective irrigation of this country during
high Nile, since it would only be necessary to
lead canals from the river to the land to be
irrigated, controlling the flow of water in the
canals by sluices or barrages, formed at their
intakes. But at low Nile the level of water in
the river is some twenty feet below the surface
of the land, so other means have to be adopted

METHODS OF IRRIGATION. 267

to irrigate during summer. Three courses are
open for adoption :—

1st. To raise the water to the required level
by pumping or other mechanical means.

2nd. To tap the river at some point upstream,
and lead off a canal at a flatter fall than that of
the river, so that at the required place the water
will have attained the surface.

3rd. To dam up the waters of the Nile itself
by a great weir, or barrage.

The first course is that chiefly adopted in
Egypt: and the well-known shadoofs, sakiehs, and
natalahs are the mechanical means most in vogue,
though Cornish pumping- engines and centrifugal
pumps are also common enough. The second plan
of high-level canals is ill-adapted to the condi-
tions in Egypt, because of the small fall of the
land. Thus, the Nile valley falls at the rate of
five inches per mile; hence, since the inclination
of the canal could hardly be less than one inch
and a half per mile, it would require a length of
nearly seventy miles of canal before the water
would have attained a sufficient height, relative
to the adjoining land, to irrigate without pump-
ing. Canals of this length and of the required
capacity would cost many millions, and even
then would do the work far less effectually than
a barrage. It is no matter of surprise, therefore,
that the advisability of constructing a barrage

268 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

across the Nile at the head of the Delta was
seen at a very early period ; and that the work
itself was undertaken by Mehemet Ali in the
year 1847.

The barrage of the Nile is, perhaps, the
most imposing engineering work to be found
in Egypt ; but unfortunately, from a variety of
causes, it has not satisfied the anticipations of
its projectors. From instability of foundations
it has not succeeded in damming up the waters
more than some five feet, whereas at least fifteen
feet is required to do the work of irrigation
effectually. The barrage across the Rosetta
branch is 1525 feet in length, and includes sixty-
one arches of 16' 4" span, and two locks of the
respective widths of forty and fifty feet ; the
whole work presenting much the appearance of a
railway viaduct of brickwork, with stone dress-
ings. The Damietta barrage is 1787 feet long,
with arches and locks of the same dimensions
as in the other barrage. A large iron sluice-
gate was to have been fitted in each archway,
which when lowered would dam the waters
back, to a height of fifteen feet above low Nile
level, and when raised would have allowed the
floods to pass down unimpeded. Owing to the
defect in the foundations, these sluices have not
yet been furnished to the whole of the barrage ;
but temporary means are adopted for closing

MB. FOWLER'S PLAN. 269

some of the arches during low Nile, and so
slightly raising the level of the river above the
barrage. The loss from the non-completion of
the barrage works, and the consequent defective
and costly irrigation of the Delta, is measured
by many hundreds of thousands of pounds. Irri-
gation, which in India costs only a few shillings,
in Egypt costs as many pounds ; and the difference
is almost wholly owing to the incompleteness of
the irrigation works, amongst which the barrage
is of pre-eminent importance. It is satisfactory
to learn, therefore, that the completion of the
barrage is seriously entertained by the Khedive,
and that the whole question has been elaborately
studied by Mr. John Fowler, his consulting
engineer. Mr. Fowler, availing himself of the
progress in engineering science since the period
when the present barrage was commenced, pro-
poses to put the foundations of his new works at a
depth below the surface of the water which would
have been impracticable thirty years ago ; and so
he will attain sufficient stability to dam the
waters back to a height of fifteen feet, as origin-
ally intended, and as is necessary for the satis-
factory irrigation of the Delta, without pumping.
So stands this matter of irrigation at present.
Doubtless engineering skill, which has worked
so many marvels, can dam up even the flood of
Father Nile, and control its distribution; and

270 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

former failure is no argument against final suc-
cess, under the circumstances attending the
experiment thus far. So that if the thing be
really feasible and necessary, and will repay the
cost — all of which are questions for engineers to
solve — the completion of the barrage is now as
certain as the perpetuity of the Pyramids.

( 271 )

CHAPTEE XVI.

EDUCATION IN EGYPT.

What the Khedive has done in educating his people — The public
schools — Their chief inspector, Dor Bey — Information derived from
him — Slight sketch of the character and purposes of the new schools ,
civil and military— The Polytechnic School at Abbassieh— The
Missionary schools — Miss Whately's school, and the German —
Education for women — A queen worthy of her place — The coming
race of Egyptian women.

FULLY to relate all that the Khedive has done for
education would require a volume instead of a
chapter ; for his efforts in this direction are
worthy of all praise : so much has he already
accomplished within the last six or eight years.
A volume has been written on the subject, and
published by the Government, prepared by Dor
Bey, the able controller and chief inspector
of the public schools, giving full and accurate
information and details on this most interesting
topic. This gentleman was summoned by the
Khedive from Switzerland, where he was per-
forming similar functions, and is assisted in his

272 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

duties by Mr. Kogers, formerly British consul
at Cairo, but now in the Egyptian service.

From Mr. Dor's statements I shall merely
extract a few of the most salient features of the
new plan of regenerating Egypt, by educating
and enlightening the rising generation — an Her-
culean task indeed, when the peculiarities of
place and people are taken into consideration.
The system is not to make education compulsory
(which seems to me a mistake), and the advan-
tages it offers have been confined thus far to the
cities, and have not yet been generally extended
into the country, where the rural population, who
need it most, might avail themselves of the
benefits of instruction, in something more than
the Koran, free of cost. For the Arab child is
remarkably bright and intelligent, and loves
learning, when there is any possible chance of
his acquiring it. Mehemet Ali made some
attempt at such schools, as did also Abbas Pacha
and Sa'id ; but the merit of greatly enlarging and
perfecting them undoubtedly belongs to Khedive
Ismail, who has summoned able men from
abroad to assist him in the good work.

At some of the schools I visited I was struck
by the quickness of the boys, and their memories
seemed surprising, as well as their genius for
mathematics and arithmetic. Standing before a
black board, with a piece of chalk, the pupils

THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL AT ABBASSIEH. 273

would write down rapidly and correctly, sentences
dictated to them in different languages. Men of
all ages are admitted to prepare for teachers :
some very mature ones I saw hard at work,
grappling with school-boy tasks, with an iron
gravity nothing could disturb. The colour of
the pupils is as widely various as their types of
face ; but I saw very few negroes among them.

Ophthalmia, the terrible scourge of Egypt, had
left its mark on many of the boys ; but I was
happy to hear that the virulence of this disease
was abating under the new regime.

At the military training school at Abbassieh,
where the number of pupils between the ages of
sixteen and twenty was considerable, every
possible appliance for instruction, both mental
and bodily, was to be seen; and some of the
fencing I saw, both with foil and broad-sword,
would have done credit to the professors of the
art anywhere in Europe. Major Soliman Bey,
an Egyptian educated at Paris and Metz, was
at the head of the Polytechnic School of the
Abbassieh, formerly the site of one of Abbas'
desert palaces, near Cairo. Mr. Bourke, a
gentleman of high culture and intelligence, was
the English professor ; with two able professors
of French and German as his colleagues.

One of the largest and most famous schools in
the East, under Mahommedan auspices, has long

274 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

been in operation at Cairo, at the mosque of El
Akhsar ; but the course is chiefly if not entirely
theological, comprising lessons from and instruc-
tion in the Koran. All the mosques also have
schools attached ' to them, where squat the
youthful Arabs, shrieking out in Arabic at the
top of their voices, all at the same time : and
swinging to and fro as they shout, in chorus
with their Arab instructor. These schools are
not supported by Government endowment, but
by the payment of a trifling sum from parents
who can afford it. The Government, however, is
helping these to better teachers, trained at its
own normal schools and the course of instruction
is being enlarged.

The public schools are composed of primary
and Government schools. The primary schools
have a course which extends over four years, and
all who like to come, of whatever race or religion,
are freely admitted, either as boarders or day
scholars. The boarders who are able pay .£26
per year ; those who can pay a part only do so ;
the poor pay nothing. The same is the case with
the day scholars.

The non-paying pupils however are subject to
the call of the Government, which passes them
on through the other schools, and prepares them
for public service ; and many are made teachers
in the primary schools, besides being trained as

THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLS. 275

doctors, engineers, surveyors, etc. There are
also preparatory schools midway between the
two classes above referred to.

The Government schools (so called) are of
a special character, such as for medicine, the
higher mechanics, and a polytechnic school for
training officers of the army. Although so
recently established, they have already laid the
foundations for an admirable local education,
and for the improved standard of the next
generation of Egyptian youth.

As an indication of educational progress, the
recent rapid advance of the American missionary
schools may be cited. For nine years under
previous reigns, a small but untiring body of
these men, domiciled in Egypt, strove to get
pupils, and only succeeded on a most limited
scale ; but their recent advance in this regard,
within the last five years, has been wonderful.
They are now erecting, opposite the old Shep-
lieard's Hotel, an extensive edifice in stone,
which will comprise a church in the centre and
two wings, one for a male, and the other for a
female college, capable each of containing several
hundreds of students. The building, it is esti-
mated, will cost £15,000 when completed, and
will contain residences for the missionaries also.

From a statement made by these missionaries,
they claim within the last twenty years to have

276 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

" gathered a community of 3000 souls ; to have
established fifteen churches, with an aggregate
membership of 600 ; and to have sold and distri-
buted over 10,000 volumes of religious books and
tracts in 1874." Their centres of operation are
at Alexandria, Cairo, Mansoura, taking three
angles of the Delta; the Fayoum in Middle
Egypt, and Assiout in Upper Egypt. They
number seventeen missionaries (ten male and
seven female), twelve native evangelists, sixty-
three native trained teachers, male and female,
and a corps of native colporteurs. They have
in active operation eighteen boys' schools and
nine for girls, some of them boarding-schools ;
attended by Moslem as well as native Christian
children, whose parents now permit them to
attend to receive the benefits of education, if
not of religious training. The Khedive has
liberally assisted this work. He has not only
exchanged for their old mission site on the
Mooskie a most valuable lot near Shepheard's
Hotel, but added £7000 in cash, with which
the building has been commenced, and dona-
tions from other sources have raised that sum
to nearly £9000 ; so that he may, in fact, be
considered one of the founders of these schools,
which are intended to instruct the children of
Moslems as well as Christians.

The English chapel is also approaching com-

MISS WHATELY'S SCHOOL. 277

pletion, but on a much smaller scale : and not
combined with educational purposes. The
Khedive also gave the lot for the erection of
that building, and a large and valuable one it
is. In religious toleration this Moslem prince
sets an example to some well-known Christian
rulers and statesmen, who make religious opinions
a test of good citizenship, and who

" Fight like devils for conciliation,
And hate each other for the love of God."

The indefatigable Miss Whately, daughter of
the late Archbishop of Dublin, is devoting her life
and energies to the work of educating the female
fellahs, with a disinterestedness as rare as it is
noble. Her school will be her monument, when
her life and labours are over; for England can
boast of few such women. She has given more
than money to this work of charity — the treasures
of her youth, the comforts of a home, the society
of friends and kindred. She may be termed the
Florence Nightingale of peace. Others have
sentimentalized over the fellahs, she has come
down to their level, in order to bring their
children up to hers. Luckier than most of the
self-sacrificing sisterhood, she and her work are
rightly appreciated both by Christian and Mos-
lem : and by none more so than by the Khedive
himself.

278 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

The German church — the ground for which
was also a gift from the Khedive — has been
completed, and has a large school attached to
it ; but, I think, confines its instruction to the
children of European parents.

I believe that very little is attempted or
accomplished as to the conversion or religious
instruction of Mussulman children ; the so-
called "converts" being chiefly seceders from
the Coptic Church, which bitterly resents the
interference of what it considers " latter-day"
Christians, as compared to themselves.

During my experience in Egypt, most if not
all the troubles and difficulties experienced by
the missionaries in the upper country came
from this quarter, and not from the Mussul-
man Government or people.

My friend Mr. Lansing, the able and zealous
head of the American missionaries in Egypt for
the last twenty years, I am. sure will confirm
this statement, having often frankly admitted
the fact to me.

But the greatest innovation is the attempt to
educate the native women which, under the
auspices of one of the Khedive's wives, has
been attempted on a considerable scale : and
with very remarkable success thus far. Miss
Whately and the American missionaries had
been making a similar attempt previously, but

THE FIRST NATIVE WOMAN'S SCHOOL. 279

the natural dread of the ignorant and fanatical
natives, that the religious faith of their children
would be tampered with by Christian teachers,
restricted the benefit of their efforts chiefly to
the children, male and female, of the native
Christians ; and many of these, through jealousy
of the foreign teachers, would not patronize these
schools. But when the wife of the Khedive
took the matter in hand, it was a very different
thing ; for royal patronage goes as far in Egypt,
as in more enlightened countries. But two
years have elapsed since the Khedive allowed
his third wife (I think) to make use of one of
his numerous palaces for the purpose, of which
he approved ; and after preparations for the re-
ception and comfort of pupils, and engagement
of a staff of teachers, the mothers in Egypt of
every class were invited to send their daughters
to be lodged, fed, clothed, and educated, free of
charge. There was a little hesitation at first, so
startling was the suggestion, so utterly opposed
to all precedents and Oriental ideas concerning
womankind and her duties here below. But
though for three weeks after the opening day
the benches were empty, within three or four
months the 300 for whom there was accom-
modation had filled all the vacant space ; and
more than double that number were pressing
their claims for admission. This work is indeed

280 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

twice blessed — to her who gives and to those
who receive — and I regret that I do not know
and cannot commemorate the name of the prin-
cess, who is godmother to the first native female
school in Egypt, instituted under native auspices,
and endowed by native bounty.

Two years ago the Khedive, in talking to me
of his plans for the improvement of his people,
spoke of his educational ideas in reference to
the female children of his fellahs, who he pro-
posed to substitute, in domestic duties of the
household, as servants in place of the slaves;
who, he declared, were more a necessity on
account of the want of a class fitted, by training
and intelligence, to take their places. " For,"
he said, " you know very well we have no such
class here ; but let the fellah girls be educated,
and taught the duties of cleanliness and house-
hold virtues, and we can do away with the
slaves, who are a great expense and a great

nuisance."

The instruction in this school is based partly
on this idea, and partly on preparations for play-
ing the higher part of mistress of the household ;
for five days in the week are devoted to instruc-
tion in household duties and needlework, and
but two to intellectual culture. The entire
course covers a term of five years. The girls
are of all castes, colours, religions, and races,

THE COMING RACE. 281

even including negro slaves. French is the
foreign language taught, and of course their
own. The intelligence and quickness of the
girls is even greater than that of the male por-
tion of the population. With education they
will make good wives and mothers, as well as
good household servants ; and the name of the
Egyptian queen who has instituted this great
reform (which must and will prove as the. first
grain of mustard-seed with so imitative a people
as the Arab), bids fair to go down to posterity
burdened with the blessings of the male as well
as the female portion of her people, who will
enjoy the benefits and blessings of the reform
she has so well and wisely begun.

282 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE XVII.

SKETCHES OF TWO FAMOUS ANGLO-AFRICAN
EXPLORERS.

Captain Richard Burton and Gordon Pacha at Cairo — Description of the
men — Their latest work in Africa — The land of Midian — The
Soudan — Burton's first appearance in Egypt — Some curious recollec-
tions— His last visit — What he was then and now-r— Burton's dis-
covery— Gordon Pacha's personal characteristics — His proposed
work in Central Africa.

IT was my good fortune last winter, at Cairo, to
encounter and enjoy much intimate communion
with two of the most celebrated of the Anglo-
African explorers, still in the full vigour of
mature manhood, and with ardour unquenched
by the sufferings and perils, through which one
of them at least has not passed unscathed.
Captain Bichard Burton and Gordon Pacha
were both at Shepheard's Hotel during the
winter; although unfortunately they did not
meet there, Burton arriving only a few days
too late to meet his younger colleague in
adventure and fame. It would have been both

BURTON'S FIEST APPEARANCE IN EGYPT. 283

instructive and amusing to have listened to a
colloquy between these two men, who with the
sole tie of love of adventure, are in all other
respects as different as any two men possibly
can be. Burton is a very old friend of mine ;
with Gordon Pacha my acquaintance is of recent
date.

Many years ago, in the days of Abbas Pacha,
a young officer in the Indian service came
mysteriously to Alexandria, secluded himself
in the gardens of some English friends, and
diligently studied the language and customs of
the lower classes of the Arab population. Then
he as suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
Months afterwards there spread a rumour
throughout Egypt, that an adventurous Frank,
at the hourly peril of life and limb, had actually
accompanied the pilgrimage into Mecca, dis-
guised as a Mussulman, and penetrated even to
the " holy of holies " in the city of the faithful,
which no European ever had done before. But
the story was discredited, and was ranked among
the " thousand and one " fabulous stories which
are the modern " Arabian Nights' Entertain-
ments " in modern Egypt.

Passing my summer at Cairo in 1854, in
common with several of the Frank residents
(very few at that time, and composed chiefly
of foreign officials, civil engineers, and foreign

284 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

officers in the viceroy's service), it was my
custom to dine frequently at Shepheard's Hotel,
for the sake of society. One evening at dinner
we remarked a rather dirty-looking native, in
Arah dress, sitting alone at the opposite end of
the table, yet eating in Frank fashion ; appar-
ently paying no attention to what was going on
around him, though we were struck by the
exceeding brilliancy and intelligence of his eye,
whenever he looked up. As it was not Shep-
heard's habit to allow natives, especially those
of a lower class, to sit at his table d'hote, I
carelessly questioned him concerning this person ;
but received only a vague answer, and dropped
the subject. But when we saw the man several
days in succession, in the same place, our
curiosity begun to be excited ; fanned as it was
by Shepheard's hints, that we would "know
very soon who that Arab was, and might be
rather surprised ! " At last, after playing this
farce for several days, doubtless tired of want
of companionship and enforced silence, Burton
(for he it was) dropped the veil, announced his
real name and character, and astonished us all
not a little by the announcement, that the
rumour we had heard and disbelieved was
founded on truth ; as he had just returned with
the pilgrims from the (Haj) pilgrimage from
Mecca. He proved himself a most delightful

SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF HIM. 285

arid welcome accession to our little circle in
the social wilderness of the Cairo of that day,
and was my guest at my Cairene house for
some time after : recounting in his own inimi-
table style, of which his written works convey
but a faint impression, his strange and startling
adventures.

Night after night would we sit together on
the flat roof of my house, or under the palm
trees in the garden, smoking our nargilehs
under the starlit heavens : while he revived his
daily experiences during that terrible trial, at
any moment of which detection would have
been death; and when he left us to prepare
his story for the public through the press, we
sorely missed his ready wit and exciting con-
versation. For he is a most admirable raconteur ;
and although not averse to the sound of his own
voice by any means, is an attentive listener,
and ready to take as well as give in conversation
— a very rare merit among clever men, whose
talk is seldom " relieved by occasional flashes of
silence," as Sidney Smith remarked on one
occasion of Lord Macaulay's.

Hence, when the familiar face of Kichard
Burton, sadder and sterner, and bearing its
souvenir of past perils in the shape of a deep
cicatrice on the cheek, again greeted me at the
old place, and his strong hand grasped mine

286 THE. KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

again, it was like a resurrection of the olden
time ; and we took up the thread of our long-
interrupted intercourse, where we had dropped
it more than twenty years hefore. In that
interval what countries had this, our greatest
modern traveller, not seen and described, from
Iceland to Sind, from Central Africa to Salt
Lake ? and with what strange and diversified
memories must not that busy brain be filled,
never given to the world even in the library of
volumes, in which he has recorded his experi-
ences in longer and more varied wanderings
than those of Ulysses, over lands undreamed of
by that ancient mariner ?

I found Burton more changed in his outward
than in his inner man. Perhaps he was more
addicted to the utterance of very startling para-
doxes in his random talk, than formerly : and
even more fond of shocking people's stereotyped
prejudices than he used to be ; but his manner
was less abrupt, and his tolerance of opinions
opposite his own much greater than in his
earlier days, when he was apt to be somewhat
dictatorial. The old charm of his conversation
was still there, increased by the stores of varied
information carefully gathered up and retained
by a most retentive memory. I have encountered
many clever talkers, in different languages, but
I really have never met Burton's superior any-

HIS LAST VISIT. 287

where, in this respect. ' Physically he still *
retains the vigour and strength which he
formerly enjoyed. His arm is like a bar of iron ;
and he keeps his biceps and other muscles in
constant training, by habitually carrying in his
hand an iron cane, which most men would find
fatiguing in an hour. He does this to keep in
training for carrying a heavy gun on his explor-
ations.

For a long time he was mysterious with his
intimates, as to the real object of his visit to
Egypt : not knowing how the Khedive might
receive or assist in his search for the long-for-
gotten gold mines of the land of Midian. Three
days after I left Cairo for Europe, he started for
the land of Midian, furnished by the Khedive
with the means of conveyance and necessary
escort ; and has again startled the world by new
revelations of new discoveries, more fully to be
explored and utilized, it is to be hoped, during
the ensuing winter.

Where Burton went, and what he saw, has
been briefly described in a letter from Alexandria
to a London daily journal, the substance of
which briefly is, that he went on a friendly
errand for the Khedive to survey the " land of
Midian," having informed the monarch of his
belief that valuable gold mines were to be found
there. On the eastern coast of the Gulf of

288 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Akaba, on the Ked Sea, lies the ancient and
almost forgotten land of Midian, famed of old
for its mineral wealth. Thither went Captain
Burton, a Government frigate and sufficient mili-
tary escort having been furnished him ; an able
French mining engineer in the Egyptian service,
M. Marie, accompanying the expedition.

The party left Suez on the 21st March last,
and on the 2nd April arrived at Moilah, a port
of the Gulf of Akaba, where an Egyptian
garrison is stationed. The account goes on to
state : —

" Thence they took boat to Eynounah Bay,
at the entrance of the Wady, or Valley of
Eynounah, a little to the north of Moilah, on
the eastern side of the gulf. These wadys are
curious. They are barren rocky places, with no
possibility of much culture, and yet they all
bear signs of abundant population in times gone
by. Large towns, built not of mud, as Arab
towns so often are, but of solid masonry such as
the Romans always used, roads cut in the rock,
aqueducts five miles long, remains of massive
fortresses, artificial lakes — all these signs of
wealth and numbers are reported by Captain
Burton. According to him the reason of it all
is not far to seek. The rock is full of mineral
wealth. Gold and silver they found, and the
former seems to exist in quantity sufficient to
repay the labour of acquisition. Quartz and
chlorites occur with gold in them just as they
are found in the gold districts of South America.
The party tested both the rock by crushing and

THE LAND OF MIDTAN. 289

the sands of the streams by sifting, and in each
case with good result. Tin and antimony they
also discovered, and they had evidence of the
existence of turquoise mines. Each ruined
town had its mining works ; dams for the wash-
ing of sand and crushed rock were frequently
seen ; scoriae lies about near ancient furnaces ;
in short, the traces are numerous of a busy
mining population in a country which seems to
be full of mineral wealth. From Makna (Mugna
of the maps), the capital of the land of Midian,
up to Akaba at the head of the gulf, Captain
Burton reports the country as auriferous, and he
believes the district southwards as far as Grebel
Hassani — a mountain well known to geographers
—to possess the same character. He even goes
so far as to say he has brought back to life an
ancient California.

" M. Marie, a skilful mining engineer, also
speaks with confidence. Of course Captain
Burton has kept elaborate notes, and he main-
tains that they will bear out his golden views of
the land of Midian. In any case they will be
interesting, as the country is utterly unknown.
No modern traveller has set foot there ; even
the map has yet to be made. It will be remem-
bered that Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh
and dwelt in the land of Midian, and Jethro,
the priest of Midian, gave him for wife his
daughter Zipporah. The Khedive, of course, is
much interested in the complete success of this
expedition, and is now very desirous to give
practical effect to it. He has asked the Foreign
Office to allow Captain Burton to return next
winter to assist him in the development of his
new gold fields, and no man could be better

290 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

chosen for the task. At the same time the
Egyptian ruler is fully convinced that all
schemes of development in his dominions must
now he subjected to commercial tests. The
success of the new mines will therefore depend
on the opinion of European capitalists, and
whether they find that the reports — which will
be made in detail — of the results of the expedi-
tion offer a new field for the investment of
capital. The Khedive himself will be satisfied
with the payment of a royalty."

Physically and mentally, in appearance and
manner, as well as in character and speech,
Gordon Pacha is the direct opposite to Captain
Burton. As habitually sparing of speech as
Burton is the reverse, and of a shy reserved
manner, and seeming absence of mind in
common intercourse out of doors, when in-
terested or excited, or in the vein with congenial
companions, he can talk fast and fluently, and
with great felicity of expression. He appears
to most advantage when, breaking through his
usual reticence, he frankly pours out his thoughts
and feelings to the few whom he honours with his
confidence. The real mettle of the man is then
discernible, and the strong undercurrent of a
singularly suppressed nature sweeps both speaker
and listener along, on a tide of most animated
and earnest talk : in which he seems to unburden
his whole mind.

When this breaking down of the barriers of

GOKDON PACHA. 291

reserve takes place, he seems to be swept away
by the rushing flood of feelings and thoughts
long pent up in his own breast : and you are
impressed with the thorough earnestness of the
man, in all he says or undertakes. For this,
I take it, is the key-note to his character. He
is a man terribly in earnest, and accepts life and
its duties more in the spirit of an old Covenanter,
than in the less serious one of our own days.
The religious sentiment with him is very strong,
the Bible being his constant companion in his
tent, in the desert, or the wilderness, as I have
been told by the companions of his explorations ;
though he can be short and severe enough at
times, as his Chinese record proves. In many
of his peculiar ways and traits of character, he
resembles much the famous Confederate chief-
tain, Stonewall Jackson.

Gordon Pacha is a man of middle height,
sparely but strongly built, and giving little
indication of the strength, both of sinews and
constitution, which has borne him so far un-
scathed through so many hardships, and the
African swamps, where the " pestilence walketh
at noonday," and wherein so many of his
pioneers have laid their bones. Neither in face
nor in figure does he carry any traces of his
conflicts with the treacherous climate, and more
treacherous human wild beasts, among whom

292 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

he had passed the two preceding years. Even his
complexion, still comparatively fresh and fair,
gave no hint of the kisses of the sun of Central
Africa ; and his eye was as clear and bright, as
though he had just come from promenading on
the shady side of Pall Mall. He is quite youth-
ful in appearance, with regular features and
dark brown hair. His bearing is not that of
a military man, he affects no martial stride or
measured step, but walks very rapidly, looking
neither to right or left, in seeming abstraction,
with head a little advanced, and with a slight
stoop of the shoulders, his eyes cast on the
ground. One who had never seen him before,
would mistake him rather for an author, intent
on embodying an idea or fugitive thought, than
the cool and intrepid explorer of African wilds,
the self-possessed ruler of African savages.

Yet this modest unassuming man has in him
the stuff out of which great explorers and suc-
cessful rulers of men are made — has proved it
already ; and if he lives, and is not thwarted in
his settled purpose by treachery or death, will
be very apt to achieve it. He has gone to the
Soudan, clothed with absolute power as relates
to the governing of that province, which extends
from the first cataract to the Equator.

All the world knows the incidents of his
earlier career, and how and why he received the

HIS WORK IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 293

sobriquet of " Chinese Gordon/' when in con-
junction with two American officers he rescued
the " flowery empire'7 from its rebels, and
gave the army they commanded the title of the
" Invincible Army." Surviving his comrades,
Burgwin and Ward, Gordon reaped a rich harvest
of renown, and was invited by the Khedive to
aid him in his Central African designs ; with
what results is also well known.

I had the pleasure of meeting him at Cairo, as
he passed home on his brief conge at the close of
1876, and on his return early in 1877, when he
presented his ultimatum to the Khedive, and
was given all and even more authority than he
demanded, within a few days after his arrival;
leaving shortly after to assume his new func-
tions, as governor-general for life of all the
Khedive's actual or potential equatorial posses-
sions. His work in Central Africa, thus far, has
been simply preparatory to that which he now
has set out to terminate, viz., to weld together
under one government the scattered outlying
provinces, and more recent acquisitions loosely
termed The Soudan : a territory larger and more
populous than Egypt proper, to which it acknow-
ledges the most indefinite kind of obedience —
offering, both in its climate and its savage inhabi-
tants, immense difficulties in the way of regular
government or improvement. But the main

294 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

object of Gordan Pacha's ambition, and the
chief incentive to his taking his life into his
hand, and returning to his province, is the sup-
pression of the internal slave-trade; which feat
he has pledged himself to accomplish, should life
and health be spared him, and the inscrutable
fiat of Omnipotence not forbid it. But neither
he, nor those who know him best, believe that he
will fail ; although he has indeed a thorny path to
tread, and a most difficult task to accomplish.
All doubts as to the Khedive's sincerity in this
matter, would seem to be put at rest, by the
absolute authority he has given Colonel Gordon,
and given for life, with no reserved right of
recalling it; for it was on that condition only
that he consented to go.

I do not know which, of the two tasks he has
set himself, is the more difficult to accomplish.
The Central or Equatorial Africans are terribly
barbarous and savage, and as faithless as fero-
cious, with a wild sense of independence, and
hatred of all the restraints of civilization. As to
slavery and the slave-trade, they have long been
the cherished institutions of the country, the
very foundation of their social system ; and to
eradicate either, or both, will be a task of greater
difficulty and danger, than those unacquainted
with the country and people can possibly ima-
gine. Even without entirely accomplishing hi«

GORDON PACHA. AIDES. 295

self-appointed task, Gordon Pacha may do a
great and good work, by reducing the existing
chaos into some semblance of settled govern-
ment : and paving the way, for at least the
partial civilization of a people, at present given
over to barbarism.

The first effect of the late stoppage of the
slave-trade, has been to diminish the receipts of
ivory, and other products of Central Africa ; but
once diverted by the river and railway communi-
cation to Cairo, that trade may become one of
the most important resources of Egypt.

His seat of government will be Khartoum, on
the White Nile, already a large and growing
place of about 30,000 inhabitants, which the
rapidly increasing trade of Central Africa, if
diverted thither, should expand into a large city.
He has no European or white man with him,,
save a Maltese dragoman, Tomaso Ferrante. His
only lieutenants at present are Major Prout, a
very clever American civil engineer,, who has
already been two years in Central Africa, and
who will act as his deputy governor-general ;
and Colonel Mason, an equally experienced and
clever officer, one of the ex-Confederates in the
Khedive's service. Both of these last-named
officers are good linguists, which is of great im-
portance in their position. Colonel Chaille Long,
who was with Gordon in his first expedition

296 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

(whose clever narrative of his adventures and
discoveries excited much attention last year), is
now at Cairo under medical treatment; his health
having suffered severely from his trying visit to
King M'Tesa. That potentate is said to be
badly disposed towards the new governor-
general, and may give much trouble ; and dis-
turbances are said to have broken out at Darfour,
whither Colonel Mason was sent. The latest
tidings of Gordon Pacha were, that he also was
hastening to Darfour, to quell those disturbances.
The extent of the new province, which is larger
than Egypt proper, will render it a task of no
small difficulty to keep it in subjection to the
authority of one man ; especially if the savage
chiefs, like M'Tesa and the so-called King of Dar-
four, should rebel against or resist Egyptian rule.
Whether or not success crowns Gordon Pacha's
intrepid efforts to unite the scattered tribes
under a stable government, and stop the slave-
trade, his merit will be none the less ; for, like
the knight who set out in quest of the "Holy
Grail," the purpose in itself would glorify even
failure.

( 297 )

CHAPTEK XVIII.

MIXED JUDICIAL TRIBUNALS IN EGYPT.

Efforts of Sublime Porte, for twenty-five years, to break down the
doctrine of exterritoriality in the Turkish dominions — What ex-
territoriality means — Mixed tribunals attempted to be introduced,
under " Hatti Houmaion " of Sultan in 1856, and again tried by
Egyptian Government in 1860 — Why prevented by consuls-general
on those occasions — Nubar Pasha's persistent efforts and final
partial success — His plan as opposed to the plan recently adopted — •
My own action in the matter — The present tribunals entitled to a
fair trial.

THE idea of mixed judicial tribunals is a very
old one, originating a quarter of a century ago
in Turkey ; the Ottoman Porte thus seeking to
shake off the anomalous, and, as it regarded it,
degrading claim of the Christian Powers to
deny the jurisdiction of its courts, and what it
termed justice, on behalf of their subjects;
resting their right on the old capitulations,
which ceded that privilege, on the ground of the
incompatibility of their law, based on the Koran,
to people of other nations and different faiths.
Hence arose the doctrine of exterritoriality,

298 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

which simply signified the absence of local
jurisdiction over the foreigner throughout the
Ottoman dominions, and legal authority of their
own diplomatic or consular agents over them, in
all civil or criminal cases in which they might
be defendants. For all cases in which they were
plaintiffs, their representatives in the country,
or on the spot, were bound to press upon the
local Government their claims or rights : and the
practice grew up of submitting such mixed cases
to the local tribunals, in the presence of the
cliancelier of the consulate, or submitting them
to arbitration.

The Sublime Porte, in its windy proclamations
issued from time to time, attempted to shake off
this imperium in imperio of the foreign agents,
which doubtless was sometimes pushed too far,
sometimes abused ; as will ever be the case when
such great power is intrusted to men not
always capable, or endowed with discretion or
principle.

But, upon the whole, as far as my experience
went, the system worked well, and insured
speedy and substantial justice to foreign residents,
in the absence of a better tribunal. As early as
1856, in the " Hatti Houmaion " of the then
Sultan, the substitution of mixed tribunals for
the settlement of all difficulties between
strangers and natives throughout the empire was

ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH TKIBUNAL IN 1856. 299

decreed ; and a copy of the firman sent to Egypt
to be publicly read, that its provisions might be
applied there, as elsewhere throughout the
empire. On receiving it, Said Pasha shrugged
his shoulders, and submitted it to the consuls-
general, whose duties were diplomatic, the mere
consular duties being attended to by the
consuls and vice-consuls.

In a despatch to my Government, dated
May 1st, 1856, the reasons that induced my
colleagues and myself to refuse accepting this
innovation were fully set forth. A few extracts
from that document will suffice to show the
justice of our refusal to countenance the change.

" With reference to the practical operation of
the mixed tribunals proposed, an almost insuper-
able difficulty arises from the absence of a
common language and a common sympathy
between its constituent parts. Nine-tenths of
the rayahs speak or understand no language but
their own, the Arabic. Each foreign nationality
is ignorant of the language spoken or understood
by the other, as a general rule ; while for com-
munication with the natives a jargon composed
partly of lingua Franca, partly of Arabic, is most
current. The Maltese subjects of Great Britain,
of whom there are a great many here, and con-
stantly in litigation, have actually invented a
new language, understood only by themselves,

300 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

composed of French, Italian, Spanish, and
Arabic.

" Men who not only live apart, but are careful
even to be buried apart, regarding close contact
in life or death as contamination, could scarcely
be coupled together or confer very harmoniously.
Imagine a tribunal composed of several Moslems,
two Christian Armenians, two Latin and two
Greek Christians (every native Christian sect here
bitterly hating the other), and add two Jewish
Eabbis, and you would have a most striking
illustration of " the happy family" in the
museums, composed of the most uncongenial
animals possibly to be found. It would certainly
require a liberal use of the most common
instrument in the administration of Eastern
justice, the Jcourbash (whip), to prevent them
from throttling each other."

The indifference of Said Pacha, and the active
opposition of the consuls-general to any change,
quashed the project for a time. But, four years
later, the idea was revived, and a determined
effort made, with the support of a portion of the
consular corps, to compel the introduction of
mixed tribunals, on the Constantinople plan,
into Egypt. This attempt was also frustrated,
by the refusal of several of my colleagues and
myself to consent to such a change on, as we
believed, good and sufficient grounds.

CONSULS-GENERAL OPPOSING. 301

In order that our action then may not be
regarded as merely personal or factious, I shall
make a few brief extracts from my communi-
cations on the subject to my own and to the
Egyptian Governments, giving the reasons for
our action. On July 7th, 1860, Cherif Pacha,
then Minister of Foreign Affairs, transmitted to
all the consuls-general a despatch, covering a
printed programme of "A Mixed International
Tribunal," which he declared had been " adopted
by the representatives of the five European
Powers signing the treaty of 1841 in accord
with the Egyptian Government ; " to which, in
the name of the viceroy, he demanded our ad-
hesion. The salient points of my reply to Cherif
Pacha, in which all of my other colleagues, save
the five above mentioned, concurred, were as
follows : —

" Whatever may be the real or supposed obli-
gations conferred on the Egyptian Government
by any of the Powers in 1841, or at any other
period, at this date every representative of a
foreign Government here, great or small, enjoys
the right of exclusive protection of his own
subjects or citizens, under treaty stipulations, in
which the rights and privileges conceded ' to the
most favoured nations ' place all foreign agents
here on the same footing. Under such circum-
stances, as the representative of my Government

302 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

here, I never will surrender those rights, nor
resign into irresponsible hands, my high pre-
rogative of demanding and enforcing justice for
my people, from prince or peasant, in Egypt and
its dependencies.

"A general convocation of all the consuls-
general has hitherto been the universal, as well
as the only just and proper mode of considering
proposed reforms, or changes affecting all nation-
alities; but on two separate occasions, within
my own official term, projects very similar to
this, but of wider scope, have been discussed,
and finally rejected by the whole body thus
assembled.

" Why, upon this occasion, a studied exclusion
of more than two-thirds of the consular corps
has been made, the Egyptian Government may
possibly be able to explain, if not to justify ; but
it certainly relieves those thus excluded, from
the thankless task of volunteering opinions, after
the ' adoption ' of a system, or of giving in their
adhesion to a tribunal, wherein they are to have
an occasional solitary representative, as an act
of grace only, when their own business is to be
settled by the numerous deputies of the Egyptian
Government and of the five Powers, with power
of appeal to another, a remote, and an alien
jurisdiction. The law too of such tribunals is
to follow the Code Napoleon, diluted by the

THEIE REASONS GIVEN. 303

customs and usages of the country — a code in
direct opposition to the common law, which re-
gulates the affairs of sixty millions of American
and English men. Apart from the radical objec-
tion as to the mode of its inception, the project
itself does not ohtain the sanction of my judg-
ment, for many and grave objections as to its
plan and provisions ; which, at a proper time
and place, and to a competent authority, I shall
stand prepared to justify."

To the Secretary of State I gave those objec-
tions in detail, of which only the salient ones
shall now be reproduced.

" Istly. The High Court of Appeal from the
judgments of proposed tribunal is to be Con-
stantinople, where the laws, usages, customs,
currency, and language are as widely dissimilar
from those of Egypt, as those of England would
be from those of Austria, and where neither
judge, jury, nor witnesses would be accessible.

"2ndly. Such tribunal is to adopt the Code
Napoleon in its proceedings, where the usages
and customs of the country prove insufficient,
and is framed exclusively on French models and
based on French law. When the Mediterranean
shall really have become a ' French lake/ either
by conquest or treaty, it will be time to adopt
the French code as the supreme law of the
Levant; but until then we prefer the common

304 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

law, and an equitable settlement on the basis of
justice, irrespective of forms, for our people.

" 3rdly. The representatives or judges ap-
pointed by the ' five treaty Powers ' only would
sit in judgment on the rights and interests of all
other nationalities in Egypt ; giving those ' five '
effectively a protectorate over Egypt, and all
foreigners therein. In such case the continued
residence of agents of other Powers would be a
mere farce.

" 5thly. Under the printed programme a bribe
is offered to the judges to protract, instead of
hasten judgment : each receiving <£5 for every
sitting, and no limit being put upon their
number ! Such litigation would be an ex-
pensive luxury.

"6thly. The large sum required to be de-
posited in advance by the claimant, for payment
of expenses, costs, etc., would make this court
the resort of rich speculators, not poor and
honest creditors. To the same practical effect
would be the extraordinary clause, that l no
claimant after commencing his process shall be
allowed to settle his cause ! '

" Tthly and lastly. The creation of such tri-
bunal is utterly uncalled for. The Egyptian
Government exercises authority over the princes,
who are Egyptian subjects, as well as over the
rest of the natives ; and arbitration, the simplest

NUBAR PACHA'S NOTE. 305

and most honest mode of settling controversies,
is always open to them, should this Government
feel any delicacy in their behalf ; while as relates
to the Egyptian Government itself, I must bear
testimony, after seven years' experience, to its
good faith in the fulfilment of all bond fide
contracts or obligations."

One of my colleagues concurring with me was
the Sardinian, the list of whose consulate num-
bered 10,000 persons. The scheme was dropped.

The initiation of the existing judicial tribunals
is due to Nubar Pacha, who for seven years
laboured indefatigably with the foreign Powers
and the Khedive to remove difficulties. In
1868 ' he laid down the basis of his project, in
many respects widely differing from that which
has been finally adopted, in a formal " Note
to his Highness the Viceroy of Egypt on the
Future Regulation of the Legal and Judicial
Relations between the Foreign and Native
Population of Egypt " — covering a report from
M. Manoury, of the bar of Paris, on the same
subject — from which I take the following ex-
tracts : —

" SIEE, — The legal system to which Europeans
in Egypt are subject, and which determines
their relations both with the Egyptian Govern-
ment and the inhabitants of the country, are no
longer based upon the capitulations. Of those
capitulations nothing exists but the name.

306 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

They have been replaced by a system customary
and arbitrary, resulting from the character of
each chief of the consular agencies ; a system
founded on precedents more or less improper,
and one which the force of circumstances, pres-
sure on the one side and anxiety to facilitate the
establishment of foreigners on the other, have
introduced into Egypt ; a system which really
leaves the administration without power, and
the people without any regular justice in their
intercourse with Europeans.

" The necessity of a reform is keenly felt as
the European colony increases; the consular
agencies themselves recognize the necessity of
it, and even demand it. The Egyptian Govern-
ment and the consulates are at one as regards
the principle of this necessity; disagreement
commences at the means of putting the prin-
ciple in practice.

" The Government sees itself attacked by law-
suits which frequently the consuls themselves
are compelled to stigmatize as scandalous. The
native population distrusts the European ; the
Government, which nevertheless sees progress in
this same European, is obliged, for fear of being
victimized, to keep aloof from him.

" For more than forty years the European has
enjoyed the right to hold property in Egypt.
His possession is said to be subject to the
tribunals and laws of the country. The consuls
in theory are agreed on this principle, but in
practice, under pretext of the capitulations,
which they say cover the European, the latter,
being either owner of a house or carrying on a
trade, pays no duties ; and if being owner of an
estate he does not pay land-tax, then the consul

EXPLANATION OF HIS VIEWS. 307

interferes, and his interference almost always
ends in non-payment.

" This state of things, contrary to the spirit
and even the letter of the capitulations, not only
hinders the country from developing its re-
sources, from furnishing to European industry
and capital all that it is ready to furnish, but
puts an obstacle in the way of its organization,
and ruins it alike morally and materially.

"Your highness has thought that the only
remedy to apply to this state of things is the
organization of a good system of justice, which
would present to Europe all the guarantees
which it has a right to demand.

"Your highness has thought that the foreign
element ought to enter into tlie organization of
our tribunals. In fact, this element, which is
not numerous at Cairo, is equal at Alexandria to
the native element. A number of Europeans are
permanent residents in the provinces. All are
engaged in commerce or manufactures. They
are therefore in daily, and so to speak hourly
communication with the population. Account
must therefore be taken of this element in the
organization of the tribunals, and upon principle
even superabundant guarantees must be given,
in order to inspire in that element confidence
alike in the judges and in the administration.

" The main principle is the complete divorce
of justice from the administration. Justice
ought to emanate from the Government, but ought
to be independent of the Government. It ought
to be alike independent of Government and of
consulates. In order to attain the end which
your highness has in view, the Powers of Europe
must be satisfied of the fact : ' Justice emanates

308 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

from the Government, but is independent of it.'
The means of inspiring this conviction are to be
found in the possession of a body of trained
judges. Knowledge of the law is indispensable
to the judge. It is matter of habitual study,
it is altogether an education. Our present
magistrates have a perfect knowledge of the law,
civil and religious, which sufficed when they had
but to render a uniform justice to a population
uniform in manners and requirements.

" But to meet new contingencies we must have
new laws, and the Europeans, in establishing
themselves in the country, have introduced new
usages and novel relations. A mixed system
has begun to find its way into our laws and our
codes, consequently we must have new men to
apply this new system. Egypt, to secure the
administration of justice, must do what she has
already done in so efficient a manner for the sake
of her army, her railroads, her bridges and high-
ways, and her sanitary improvements. The
element which is competent to the task, I mean
the foreign element, has been introduced. That
element has served to educate the native element.
That which has been done in the material must
be done in the moral world, that is to say, in the
organization of justice.

"I have the honour to propose .to your high-
ness the preservation of the two mixed tribunals
of commerce established at Cairo and at Alex-
andria ; but in place of their being composed of
three members chosen by the consuls from
among the merchants of the European colony,
and of the three native members whom the
Government summons to it in turn, I would pro-
pose to your highness to compose the court of

THE TRIBUNALS TO BE EGYPTIAN. 309

only four members, of whom two should be
chosen by the consuls from the most consider-
able of merchants, presenting the highest guaran-
tees, and two others by the Government from
the natives, whose course of business brings
them into the closest relations with Europeans.
These members, in accordance with the existing
plan, would sit in turn. I would propose to
your highness to leave the presidency of the court
to an Egyptian, but to concede the vice-presi-
dency to a judge chosen in Europe ; and in
order to have guarantees of his character, it
would be well to apply to the minister of justice
of the country from which he is taken. The
latter judge would be appointed for life.

" Besides these two tribunals, it would be
necessary to have a court of appeal sitting at Alex-
andria. That court .would be composed of three
Egyptian members, whom your highness could
select among our young men who have studied
law in Europe ; and three other members, com-
petent judges obtained from Europe by appli-
cation to their respective Governments. This
court would discharge its functions under the
presidency of an Egyptian. By the side of the
two tribunals of commerce, there would be two
tribunals to decide in civil suits. Those might
be composed of two competent members selected
from abroad, and two Egyptian members, also
under the presidency of an Egyptian subject.

" The court of appeal sitting at Alexandria
would also enjoy as one of its prerogatives, the
revision of judgments given by the civil courts.
In causes arising out of questions of real pro-
perty, Europeans have always been subject to
our courts. These courts work well. Their

310 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

component members thoroughly understand the
subject-matter. Here the foreign element would
not be of superior competence. I therefore pro-
pose to your highness to leave these courts as
they are.

" About 1848 the consuls, under the pressure
of their countrymen, having usurped the office of
the law, found themselves powerless, erected
their own impotence into a principle, and by
degrees, by the force of circumstances, were
driven to the presumption of ousting the Govern-
ment and holding trials themselves — at most
calling in a functionary of the native police ;
their pretext being that, as the penalty had to
be inflicted in their own country, the trial could
not be valid, except it were held in conformity
with their own laws.

" Such is really the state of things not only as
regards crimes, but even as regards offences and
simple infractions of the law. Justice is seen to
be altogether given up not to institutions, but to
the arbitrary will of individuals. The position
of the Government is no longer tenable, when
one considers that the police is powerless to
repress the smallest infraction of the law, to such
an extent as to be unable to enforce the high-
way regulations, or those which concern the
stations of the public vehicles. For, if some one
consul is disposed, upon the application of the
police, to call to order a refractory driver,
another consul regards the matter as a trifling
affair, sometimes for the very reason that the
other deems it worth attention.

" In short, what your highness demands,
whether in respect of the civil or the criminal
law, is a return to the capitulations; and not

NUBAK'S PLAN NOT ADOPTED. 311

merely a return pur et simple, but, on the con-
trary, a return which would grant to foreigners
guarantees superior to those which these capitu-
lations presented to them.

" In effect, according to these capitulations
the foreigner has a native tribunal, which hears
and decides in the presence of the dragoman, a
mere witness without a consultative voice.

" According to the projected reform your
highness, in place of this silent witness, con-
cedes to foreigners the guarantee of a tribunal,
in the composition of which a European
element enters ; and of a code reduced into
conformity with the penal and civil laws of
Europe."

From this statement of the ideas and purposes
of Nubar Pacha, it is evident, on comparing
what he planned and what he achieved, that the
Khedive and the Great Powers treated him as
Homer's Jupiter treated the prayers of mortals—
" one-half they granted, the rest dismissed into
empty air." His plan was to curb at once the
absolute power of the Khedive, and restrict the
authority of the consuls-general, by establishing
tribunals which should overrule the arbitrary
decisions of both. At the same time his purpose
was to give the controlling voice to the
Egyptian element, and to extend their juris-
diction over the native as well as over the
European population throughout the whole
country.

312 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

As the tribunals are now constituted they are
international tribunals only, with jurisdiction
exclusively civil (extending only to criminal
offences committed against their members), and
not having jurisdiction over the five and a half
millions of natives, who are still subject to the
old Egyptian judges and the old system which
has the Koran as its basis.

His avowed object was to make the system
of general application ; and while giving the
European element a voice, to keep the control
in Egyptian hands, but in educated and legal
ones. The consular authority died hard; it
reserved its criminal jurisdiction, and even its
consular courts in certain cases, and claimed
a controlling voice for its substitutes in the
courts. The Khedive, ceding the mixed juris-
diction, has taken no steps to divest himself and
his courts of absolute control over the native
population, either in civil or criminal cases, in
which no European interest is involved. Whether
the consummation sought by Nubar will ever be
reached, depends greatly on the success of the
experiment, now being made on a limited scale,
which might induce an expansion of its attributes
and authority, in the creation of native courts
founded upon a somewhat similar basis.

There are good lawyers and clever men on the
existing courts, and they are honestly striving to

THE EXISTING TRIBUNALS. 313

remove the great impediments, which obstruct
their usefulness, and their most strenuous efforts.

The pay of the judges I do not regard as
exorbitant, under the circumstances; but I do
think the costs and expenses of litigation are too
great. Yet, even with the very heavy costs, the
sum thus far gathered in, as I understand, has
proved inadequate to relieve the Government
from one-half of the expense of the very
cumbrous machinery employed in working the
new establishment. As the courts are organized
on the French plan, there is a small army of
subordinate officers attached to them ; and if the
whole affair could be simplified — reduced in
numbers and in expense — I believe it would
prove more manageable, and more in consonance
with the wants and wishes of the parties chiefly
concerned, namely, the tax-payers, the litigants,
and the Khedive.

No machine so complicated and so entirely
novel, both in construction and purpose, can be
expected to approach perfection at the outset ;
and I venture, with hesitation, to make these
suggestions, without impugning either the utility
of the tribunals, within a certain scope, or the
propriety and fitness of the selections made for
their higher posts ; the judges having been
appointed upon the recommendation of their
respective Governments, who, and not the

314 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Khedive, must be held responsible for their
selection. Doubtless, as the members of the
tribunal warm to their work, and learn more of
the exceptional country to which they have been
called, as well as gain a mastery over the Babel
of tongues prevailing there, the machine may
act more smoothly and efficiently than it has
hitherto done.

( 315 )

CHAPTEK XIX.

EGYPTIAN FINANCE AND EESOURCES.

Absorbing interest felt therein — The doctors disagreeing — State of the
patient in the eyes of a non-professional — A plain statement as to
amounts actually received from foreign loans by the Khedive — What
did he do with it? — Testimony of the Times partly exculpatory
of the Khedive — Curious and instructive letter from a native
Egyptian official, translated from the French — His statements ' of
resources, and suggestions for their increase — A few facts and figures.

IT would seem strange that a book devoted to
Egypt should make no mention of Egyptian
finance, a matter which has probably attracted
more attention, and created more painful in-
terest in the minds of foreigners, towards the
country and its rulers, than all M. Mariette's
truly remarkable discoveries among the debris of
its ancient and forgotten ruins ; or the equally
wonderful spectacle of an Eastern prince playing
the role of reformer and regenerator of his
public farm, for such Egypt had been to his
family; the only previous efforts having been
directed to the increase of its agricultural pro-

316 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

ducts, and the ways and means of increased
taxation.

Where the most eminent financiers of all
countries have been called into consultation,
and have proffered their panaceas, it would be
presumptuous indeed in one whose mind has
been engrossed, and whose life has been spent, in
other duties, dogmatically to pronounce either
on the symptoms or the condition of the patient,
over which these most learned doctors have only
" agreed to disagree."

I shall, therefore, on this topic briefly cite the
opinions of those who are best qualified to pass
judgment, both as to the disease, the remedy,
and the actual state and prospects of the patient ;
who I have never believed to be half " the sick
man" his cousin' at Constantinople long has
been, and who, under proper treatment, and the
exercise of forbearance on the part of his dry-
nurses, can and ought to be restored to even
more than his pristine vigour, if time only be
given for the cure, and undue pressure be not
put upon him in his present shaky condition.

And firstly, as to the amounts received and
squandered, or invested in public works as yet
unproductive — have they really amounted to the
very large figure, rising to almost £100,000,000,
for which the Khedive and his country are
debited by the foreign accountants, and his own

THE TIMES ON EGYPTIAN DEBT. 317

admissions. It is safe to say that not one-half
of this amount has the Khedive ever netted
out of his various loans, and that the outside
dead loss to the foreign investor — chiefly
English and French — supposing the Egyptian
Government absolutely bankrupt, excluding the
funding loans and floating debt, would not
exceed from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000.

But recent experiments, under Mr. Goschen's
scheme, have proved that the country is by no
means bankrupt, and is astonishing everybody,
even those who thought they best understood
the limits of her resources, by meeting the
enormous payments due in January and July,
under the most stringent and onerous conditions
ever imposed by creditor on debtor ; and, crucial
fact of all, that the Khedive has acted in perfect
good faith towards his foreign commissioners of
the Caisses for receipt and disbursement of the
public funds ; doing more instead of less than
he was called upon to do.

For the statement I have made as to the
actual receipts and expenditures, for public
benefit, from the loans originally made by the
Khedive, I quote from the money article of the
London Times of 19th May, 1876, the following
pregnant admissions ; the more weighty because
that journal is not disposed to take a rose-
coloured view, either of the Khedive, or of

318 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Egyptian finance for some time past ; Turkish
default having thrown its shadow over the
tributary, as well as the chief sinner, in the
Times' appreciation. The Times says :—

" According to the statement of Mr. Cave's
report, the Khedive has only netted some
£45,000,000 on all the existing loans, State
and private, which have been floated for him,
and out of that he has paid back, including
the last April coupon, over £31,000,000. Of
the remainder, some £10,000,000 went to defray
costs connected with the Suez Canal and the
unjust awards of Napoleon III. connected with
it ; so that but a minute sum remains which
the Khedive could by any possibility have spent
on improving his country. He can hardly have
thus spent even that minute sum, because it
would be needed for commissions, discounts,
and market operations and for the ' service ' of
the debt. Therefore, we have the huge floating
debt as the sort of lumber-roorn into which the
costs of all his extravagances have been flung.
The floating debts cannot reasonably be viewed
as an investor's loss at all, and, excluding these,
as well as part of the Turkish fives, and of later
funding loans of both Turkey and Egypt, we
believe a sum of £20,000,000 to £25,000,000
may safely be taken as the outside dead loss
of the investing public, not more than half of

STATEMENTS OF AN EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL. 319

which would fall on this country, supposing the
Turkish and Egyptian Governments to fail
absolutely."

In a very remarkable letter, addressed to the
Times from Paris, and published in French in
that journal under date of 19th May, a clear
and rapid resume of the actual financial con-
dition of Egypt, is given by an " ex-Egyptian •
official then in that capital," who it was sup-
posed could be none other than Nubar Pacha,/
the former Minister of Commerce and Foreign
Affairs, whose knowledge and honesty no one
could doubt. I translate the closing portion
of his letter, which gives, in a nutshell, the
resources from which Egypt proposes to meet
her obligations, as I never saw them so briefly,
clearly, and intelligibly stated elsewhere :—

" . . . . Having shown the efficacy of
the control established by the appointment of
the foreign commissioners, it remains only
to examine the financial side of this decree.
Can Egypt pay the interest she promises,
and, at the same time, meet the actual wants
of her internal administration? My answer is
in the affirmative. I entertain no doubts on the
subject. I adopt even the figures of Mr. Cave.
According to Mr. Cave's report the annual
revenues of Egypt are ,£10,500,000. He is
right in these figures, but he comprises in this

320 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

estimate the proceeds of the Monkabaleh, which
amount to ,£1,500,000 annually ; but as this
is only a temporary tax, without it the regular
revenues of Egypt would amount to ,£9,000,000.
Yet were the Moukabaleh suspended, it follows
that those who have paid but half the tax must
also then pay the other half, which equalizes
it, and restores the permanent revenue to
£10,500,000.

" But you know that in Egypt there are two
kinds of taxable lands, viz., the l Kharadgis'
(under lease), and the < Euchuris' (tithe lands).
The latter of these enjoy special privileges, and
are not taxed to one-half the extent of the
other. This certainly is not just, and the
Government may well raise the rate of taxation
in the latter case, so as to equalize the two.

" Now, as these privileged lands represent
1,300,000 feddans (acres), an additional tax of
half a guinea on each acre, which would only
raise the tax to the standard of the other lands,
would give an immediate augmentation of yearly
revenue to the amount of £650,000. You also
are aware that the Europeans resident in the
country pay no taxes. This enormity naturally
must disappear, since the new tribunals have
given them all necessary guarantees for their
security. A tax of £1 10s. on each European
(of whom there are 150,000 in Egypt) would

ADDITIONAL TAXATION SUGGESTED. 321

augment the revenues .£225,000, which, with
that previously mentioned, would add .£875,000
to the ,£10,500,000 estimated by Mr. Cave,
making a total of 11,300,000.

" Granting that Mr. Cave has over-calculated
by more than a million of pounds, even a million
and a half, and we should have at least
£9,700,000 and the interest of the debt defrayed,
there would remain for the service of the State
£400,000. But our actual administration never
fairly costs this sum.

These are our true expenses, viz. :

For all the public administrations, except the army ... £1,300,000

The tribute for Constantinople 700,000

Civil list of the Khedive 600,000

Leaving for the army 1,400,000

£4,000,000

" But, in fact, the army only figures in the
Budget for £700,000 ; hence the surplus of
£700,000 must pass somewhere outside of the
Budget.

" Should, however, the taxation and the
receipts not reach the sum necessary for the pay-
ment of the interest on the public debt, have not
the bondholders the right to say to the Khedive
that he must sooner diminish his army expenses
than their payments ? Have they not the right
to say this enormous army is the ruin of the
country? Have they not the right to say to
him that his civil list is six times as large as

322 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

that of the Emperor Napoleon (the relative size
of the two countries considered), and that, as
proprietor of a fifth of the soil of Egypt, it would
be but just for him to diminish by ,£200,000 or
<£300,000 his civil list, that his creditors might
be paid ? "

Owing to the anomalous attitude occupied by
the Khedive towards his own Government and
to the foreign creditor, arising from his double
character as ruler of the country and private
planter and trader, it has been found most
difficult to separate his public and private
indebtedness from each other, or to define
the limits which bound one from the other.
Hence all the European financiers, in their suc-
cessive reports, have drawn a line between the
two, in as far as they were able ; although the
affairs and obligations of the private Daira and
the public debt seemed to be twined as closely
together as the ivy to the oak. The clearest
statement as to the personal liabilities of the
Khedive, and his resources for meeting them,
has been given by Mr. Sandars, the able lawyer
who was sent out last winter by Mr. Goschen,
in conjunction with M. Joson, a French lawyer,
representing the French creditors, to perfect
a plan already discussed with, and consented to
by, the Khedive in his capacity of private land-
holder and agriculturist.

ME. SANDARS' REPORT.

323

A very full report of the various estates
belonging to the Khedive and his family, pre-
pared by Mr. Sandars, was read by that gentle-
man, on his return to London in May last, to
a meeting of the creditors, from which it appears
that the landed property of the Khedive and
his family embraced 435,000 acres, or "feddans,"
of which 258,000 were devoted to the sugar
culture.

The balance-sheet of this vast property is
given by Mr. Sandars as follows : —

EXPENDITURE.

Taxes £150,000

Agriculture expenses ... 400,000

Factory expenses ... 250,000

INCOME.

Lands let

. £130,000

Cotton

85,000

Sundries

. 85,000

Winter crops

. 200,000

Sugar

. 700,000

£1,200,000

Balance ...

£800,000
.. 400,000

£1,200,000

The value of the sugar crop here given is
admittedly taken at a higher rate than recent
years have seen, but Mr. Sandars says that
improved administration might so increase the
yield of sugar as to compensate for a fall in
prices. For the present year he places the
probable yield at £800,000.

According to Mr. Cave's carefully prepared
report, the Egyptian Budget for 1876 showed
the receipts to be £10,772,611, and the expendi-

324 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

ture £8,981,852, leaving a surplus of £1,790,759.
As to the liabilities on the Daira or Khedive's
private estate, the loan of 1870 showed that
the unpaid capital is £6,032,620, and the float-
ing debt £3,000,000. The present revenue of
Egypt is arrived at under three heads — land-
tax, £4,305,131; Moukabaleh, £1,531,118; other
sources of revenue, £4,852,821 ; making a total
of £10,689,070. As to the growth of the trade
of Egypt under the rule of the Khedive, it is,
to say the least of it, in the highest degree
encouraging. In the thirteen years which
elapsed from 1849-50 to 1861-2 inclusive, the
exports rose from £2,043,579 to £4,454,425.
The year 1862-3, the first year of the Khedive,
began with a sudden bound to £9,014,277, and
increased in the following year to £14,416,661.
In 1865 the exports fell, but only to £9,723,564 ;
they have never since been less than £8,000,000.
Mr. Cave's report demonstrates as plainly as
possible the fact of Egypt's solvency, should her
finances be properly collected and administered,
although in the judgment of those who ought to
know the country best, she cannot afford to pay
her creditors or tax her people at the rate of the
existing arrangement, devised by Messrs. Goschen
and Joubert, and thus far carried out with
unexpected good faith and more than ordinary
zeal by the Khedive himself, who — in justice

WHAT EGYPT CANNOT PAY. 325

it must be said — has from the first protested
against the ability of the country long to sustain
such heavy impositions, or so terrible a drain
on its resources and productions, as this scheme
involves.

Without professing any superior knowledge of
finance, or even equal skill in that science (if
such it may be called), to the many distinguished
gentlemen who have ciphered up the Egyptian
sum, I cannot forbear expressing my crude
opinion that Mr. Cave was wise, when he urged
that five per cent, was the maximum of interest
Egypt could then afford to pay her creditors at
that time : since which her liabilities have so
greatly increased, and her resources been so
greatly diminished, that even that might now
be difficult to meet, without more and greater
sacrifices than that impoverished people are now
making, and which it is impossible they can
continue to make much longer; for flesh and
blood cannot stand them.

My judgment is based partly on the exhaustive
reports of Mr. Cave, partly on my own intimate
knowledge of the country and its resources for
the last twenty years, which confirms in all
important particulars the correctness of Mr*
Cave's facts and figures, and the deductions
drawn therefrom.

Since the world began, was there ever a

326 THE KHEDIVE'S EQYPT.

population of the number of the Egyptian, from
which taxation to such an enormous amount was
annually wrung (even for a single year, much less
for a series of years), increasing instead of
diminishing, as the resources of the country be-
came less and less, through the diminishing prices
of their produce ; grain alone, owing to mere
temporary causes, having kept up in price, while
cotton has ceased almost to pay the cost of pro-
duction (if it does even that), and the number of
hands employed in cultivation has been greatly
diminished by causes already stated ?
. Roughly stated, five millions and a half of
Egyptian' fellahs pay, in direct and indirect taxes,
(besides extraordinary calls, such as war-tax and
private pickings) a total of near SEVEN MILLIONS
OF POUNDS STEELING per annum. To which must
be added near a million more for what are
termed "local revenues, taxes, and dues," em-
bracing municipal taxes, canal, bridge, port, and
other dues; and for the Moukabaleh (or antici-
pated land-tax) one and a half millions more ;
swelling up the total of taxation J£2 per head all
•over Egypt. These figures I have adopted from
Mr. Goschen's statement, the items of which I
append ; but in two items, the actual tax levied
on land and that on date trees, the amount is
understated very considerably.

When Sydney Smith drew his famous picture

GRIM REALITIES OF TAXATION. 327

of British taxation at the commencement of the
present century, and showed how his countrymen,
from the cradle to the grave, were the prey of
the tax-gatherers, causing the great mass of
those impositions to be removed, in the wildest
nights of his fertile fancy he never soared to the
naked realities of Egyptian taxation, as it is
imposed and forcibly collected to-day, under
European sanction.

328 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEK XX.

EGYPTIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS.

The social life of Egypt— Native society unchanged— The ladies of
the hareem, and their adoption of French millinery — The root of
the evil— A royal wedding party in a Khedivial hareem described —
The Khedive's entertainments — His breakfasts, dinners, and soirees
dansantes at Ab-din.

THE social life of Egypt has undergone no
apparent change, in so far as the great bulk of
the native population is concerned. High and
low, rich and poor, they still shrink from social
contact with the foreigner, outside of the narrow
circle of the court and its immediate members
or employes. It is evident that just so long as
the present system continues to be the law of
the lives of this people, this must continue to
be the case. The isolation of woman from
general society involves the isolation also of
man, whose hearth and home are in the hareem,
where none but he may come. The cold civility
of the selamlik (or man's apartment), where
alone he may receive his guests or friends,

SOCIAL LIFE OF EGYPT. 329

prevents familiarity or friendship, either with
the foreigner or native ; since into the charmed
circle of the real home-life he is not allowed to
enter.

It is true that the women of the hare em,
especially of the higher class (which is very
small in Egypt), have adopted for themselves
and slaves the fashions and fabrics of France,
discarding their own more picturesque ones ;
that instead of shuffling over the floor in slippers
without heels, they now totter insecurely on the
stilts of those hideous French hoots, which
make our modern belles as helpless and as
tortured as the Chinese ; and that some
favoured ladies of the hareem have imbibed a
sufficient smattering of French language and
tastes to listen, half asleep, to the indecencies
of Offenbach's opera bouffe ; or stare with wide-
awake eyes at the posturings and pirouettes of
the imported ballet troupe, which outstrips and
outrivals their own native almelis in agility and
indecency. Yet even this chosen few still listen
to, or view these things from a carefully
curtained stage-box, where they can see and
hear without being visible to the rest of the
audience. A sudden flash of light from jewels,
or bright eyes, through a rent in the envious
curtain concealing these fair ones, gives the only
indication of their presence at the opera or

330 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

theatre, where alone they are allowed even this
partial privilege of semi-publicity.

Ninety-nine hundredths of the Egyptian
women, however, still adhere to their old habits
and customs, and no woman of good character
in Egypt has yet dared to appear abroad without
her concealing veil or yashmak, or recognize or
speak to any man in public or in private, except
her husband or father.

The wave of progress and of civilization,
which has swept away from the Khedive's court
almost all the old forms and. usages, until it
approximates to those of Europe, has dashed in
vain up to the hareem doors ; whence it has been
driven back in shattered spray, but could gain
no admission. The Eastern lady or woman may
put on Worth's finery, and clothe her attendants
in "Frank" dress; but there all similarity to
her Western sister ends.

She is unchanged in her thoughts and habits,
morals, and daily life. Until the slavery of the
hareem is abolished, there can be no hope of
the abolition of the domestic slavery it nourishes
and perpetuates, as a necessary essential to its
own continued existence. The Khedive enun-
ciated a great truth in his reply to the deputation
at Paris, already cited, when he boldly probed
this tender point ; and those who have known
the East longest and best, look almost with

THE LADIES OF THE HAREEM. 331

despair on the prospect of any real change in
the position of woman there, so long as Islam,
and polygamy (which is its offspring), are the
laws of life to the female population.

But the external changes in hareem life, since
the time when Lady Mary Wortley Montague
wrote her inimitable letters from behind the
hareem veil in Turkey, have been considerable ;
as foreign women, who have visited them twelve
years ago, and recently, loudly declare. The
complaint now made is that much of the glory
has departed from the higher hareems, in conse-
quence of these fair inmates having discarded
their Oriental dress and usages, in the efforts to
substitute "Frank" apparel and furniture for
them ; with the result ever accompanying half-
way imitation.

Hence it may not be amiss, before the vanish-
ing point has been reached, to give here a
description of an old-fashioned bridal reception
in one of the royal hareems, but three or four
years since, on the occasion of a series of royal
nuptials, in which the Khedive's sons and one of
his daughters figured as the principal performers.
As a matter of course, I cannot pretend to
describe this festival as an eye-witness; but I
have to thank a fair friend, who, as the wife of a
high foreign officer in the Khedive's service,
attended it, for the particulars. I cannot but

332 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

regret, however, that I cannot reproduce her
vivid account of the fairy-like scene, which has
been marred in this attempt at repetition.

The fete specially described was given in
special honour of the Princess Fatmeh Ahnem,
the Khedive's eldest daughter, on the occasion
of her marriage to Prince Toussoun Pacha (since
deceased), at the queen-mother's palace at Cairo.

On leaving their carriages, the ladies who had
been invited to the festival passed, first through
an extensive garden, which was lighted a giorno
by countless lamps of many colours, and follow-
ing a marble paved walk, boarded on either side
with trees and rare plants, they reached the
entrance of the palace, where eunuchs were
waiting to lead them into a large and richly
furnished saloon. There they found the white
female slaves of the hareem, half of whom were
clad as men, and all in the most magnificent
Eastern costumes. These slaves acted as
ushers. Some were plainly dressed, carrying
drawn swrords in their hands, and having red
tarbouches on their heads; whilst others were
attired in splendid military uniforms ; and my
fair informant adds, that they presented a very
martial-looking appearance — not a bad imitation
of the genuine article. Having taken charge of
the guests, they conducted them to a second
saloon, where, for the amusement (and possible

A ROYAL WEDDING FEAST. 333

edification) of the visitors, dances were executed
by the native almehs (dancing girls), to the
music of their own castanets, and an orchestra
composed of female performers. In other apart-
ments other slaves performed a sort of ballet,
with long wands, swords, and bucklers ; but in
this room only native dances were executed.

The guests passed thence through a series of
apartments or long halls, in which all manner of
refreshments were served. There, according to
nationality or taste, each was served either in
Eastern or Western style, with things substan-
tial or sweet ; and with those wonderful coloured
drinks or sherbets, which are made of fruit, that
Oriental hands alone know how to compose.

The princesses of the royal family presided
over one table, which was reserved for the
Pacha's wives and those of the foreign consuls
and other distinguished foreigners ; and in these
apartments, as in the others, the sound of music
and song was unceasing.

Refreshments partaken of, the guests were
next presented to the queen-mother, who re-
ceived them in a vast saloon, magnificently
furnished, capable of accommodating thousands
of persons. The visitors were preceded by the
armed female slaves, and each formally pre-
sented by name and title by the European lady-
in-waiting. The presentations concluded, the

334 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

guests were shown to their seats — divans ranged
along the walls and covered with rich silks —
whence they looked on at the dancing and
singing of professionals engaged for that purpose.
The performance concluded, the dancers re-
ceived rich gifts of jewellery and cashmere
shawls, as a reward for their exertions ; the wife
of each bey or other dignitary invited to the fete
having brought her present. At a sign from the
queen-mother, the distribution of these gifts
commenced, and as each was bestowed the
name of the donor was announced, and a chorus
of thanks returned by the recipients.

This ceremony at an end, the bride made her
appearance in the following manner. The
eunuchs of the households of the Egyptian ladies
formed; from the foot of the staircase up the
steps and to the door of the saloon, where the
queen-mother sat, a long line, each man holding
a candelabra, in which were many long wax
candles of different colours. Through this
avenue of bronze the bride passed, treading all
the while on cloth of gold — no less costly carpet
being considered worthy to receive her royal
footprint. Dancing-girls, dressed in the bride's
livery, preceded her; their costumes composed
of silver gauze ornaments, with orange-flowers
and splendid diamonds. Then came the bride,
surrounded by her own women, followed by her

THE BRIDE'S DRESS. 335

mother and princesses of the blood, and another
troop of dancing-girls. Next came the princess
herself, moving slowly, with eyes cast down, and
stopping a little at each step, as though to afford
time for examination and admiration.

The guests stood up as the princess advanced ;
and as she passed along, girls, who were
stationed on raised chairs behind the visitors,
showered on them from baskets a quantity of
small gold coins, struck off expressly for the
purpose ; many of which, falling on the head or
garments of the guests, lodged in their hair or
dress. My informant, on disrobing at night,
found .£3 or <£4 worth in value of those
pretty keepsakes. The native ladies, who
were aware of this Eastern custom, had doubt-
less had their hair and garments prepared, so as
to catch as much of the golden shower as
possible. The magnificent saloon, draped in
white satin and gold, ornamented with orange
blossoms and roses, and blazing with innumer-
able lights — the dazzling brilliancy of the dresses
and ornaments of the bride and her attendants —
formed a spectacle of splendour worthy of the
" Arabian Nights' Entertainments," and such as
cannot ever be witnessed in our Western and
more prosaic climes.

Three large chairs, covered with white satin,
were placed on a raised dais, and on these sat

336 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

the queen-mother, the bride, and the mother of
the bride. Worth, the famous man-milliner,
was probably the maker of the bridal dress, which
for execution was a marvel, and, apart from
certain exaggerations, thoroughly Parisian in
taste. It consisted of skirt, bodice, and train
of the very richest white satin, and a tunic of
the finest point lace. The train, five metres in
length, was carried by white slaves, who were
richly attired. The bodice was entirely covered,
and the tunic looped, with splendid diamond
ornaments; and on her head the bride wore a
magnificent diadem, also of diamonds. So
arrayed, she might indeed be a fortune in her-
self, the value of her costume being something
fabulous. Having received the felicitations of
the royal and distinguished guests, she after a
short time withdrew ; returning to her own
apartments with the same state and ceremonies
as when she entered. The pageant over, the
visitors descended to the first saloon, where
refreshments again awaited them; and the
ceremony concluded, they left the palace.

But I fear I am treading on delicate ground,
in thus peeping (even by proxy) behind the
hareem curtains; and, mindful of the fate of
" Peeping Tom of Coventry," return to the
more orthodox treatment of Khedivial hospital-
ities, which are fast and frequent during " the
season " at Cairo.

KHEDIVIAL ENTERTAINMENTS. 337

The Khedive's entertainments comprise break-
fasts, dejeuners a la fourcliette at 12 a.m.
(dinners in all but name); a formal dinner at
7 p.m. ; soirees musicales et dansanteSj to which
ladies are invited ; and open-air entertainments,
with pigeon-shooting, etc., to which ladies also
are invited, given in the gardens of the Ghezireh
Palace.

His breakfasts and dinners are altogether a la
Francaise, with an enormous display of plate ;
the letter " I " in gold, surmounted by a crown,
being the only cliiffre on the glasses, which have
only a slight gilt rim, otherwise plain. Both the
porcelain and crystal, and in fact the whole ser-
vice, are in excellent taste. The native officials
present at these entertainments are dressed
and eat in European fashion. The wines are
abundant, and of superior quality. The Khe-
dive's " particular vanity," as Mr. Stiggins would
say, seems to be Chateau Y'quem, though he is
not disdainful of champagne on festive occasions.
His balls and soirees (of which he usually gives
several during the season), to which formal in-
vitations are ordered by the chamberlains, may
merit a short description, the place and persons
figuring at them being considered. A sketch of
one will convey an idea of all.

At nine o'clock the company assembled in the
new wing of the palace, where the Khedive

338 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

received the guests with his usual urbanity, con-
versing with ladies and gentlemen, previously
known to him, with much affability. About 150
invitations outside of his immediate court cirole
had been issued, and all the nations of Europe
were represented by richly dressed women, and
men in the sombre suit which the nineteenth
century renders de regie for full dress.

About an hour was occupied in this reception
business, and then the Khedive, with a lady on
his arm, followed by the young princes, each
escorting a lady, led the way into a long saloon
prepared as a concert-room; where a concert was
given by the best singers from the opera troupe,
male and female. When this was over, the
company moved back into the other apartments,
of which there was a long suite. The chairs
were removed from the concert-room, which was
converted into a ball-room. The band struck
up, and dancing began, which was kept up until
long after midnight, when the doors of the
supper-room were thrown open, and the cuisine
vied with Terpsichore for a time. It was a very
curious and picturesque sight, to see the strange
blending of nationalities and costumes, Western
and Eastern. The Khedive's officials and court
were in gorgeous uniforms, their breasts spark-
ling with decorations. Save the three young
princes of the blood, the natives did not dance ;

A BALL AT AB-DIN. 339

but these footed it right merrily with the fair
foreign dames ; doubtless to the discontent of the
grim grey pachas of the old school, who were
there in considerable force ; since dancing,
under the old regime, was considered not only
effeminate, but disreputable throughout Islam,
for either men or women of good character to
indulge in.

What the ladies of the hareem, invisible to all
our eyes, though probably peeping through some
chink at these performances, thought of them it
is impossible to say ; but I should think that a
mauvais quart d'heure may have awaited the
young princes, on their return home to their
hareems and their houris. The Khedive himself
does not possess or flourish the fantastic toe ;
his weight, both of person and character, pre-
venting. The ball was kept up with great
animation until the "wee sma' hours," the
Khedive manfully holding his ground until the
latest revellers had departed; being apparently
as untiring in the pursuit of pleasure as of
business.

The Khedive can play the pleasing host
admirably when his mind is at ease, and really
seems to enjoy society generally, as a distraction
from his graver cares, and the daily drudgery of
his duties, which are unintermitting. But I
remarked last winter that his gaiety was fre-

340 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

quently forced, his changes of mood too sudden
to be natural ; and that, in fact, on several of
these occasions he seemed intensely " bored;"
especially when pertinacious foreign representa-
tives would button-hole him, and, leading the
royal victim to a window, recall the recollection
of his manifold perplexities, within earshot of
the music and dancing.

What his private opinion of, or reflections
upon, foreign women or society may be, he keeps
to himself; but I have little doubt that he
breathes a sigh of relief when "the season" is
over, and he can retire within himself at Ghe-
zireh, and enjoy such share of Eastern keff
(repose) as his suzerain, the Sublime Porte, and
the less sublime but closer consuls-general, and
the unconfiding creditors, will permit Egyptian
royalty to indulge in.

The Khedive certainly believes in, and prac-
tises the philosophy inculcated by a famous
statesman, viz.: that the art of diplomacy
centres chiefly in giving good dinners : and that
the royal road to the heart is ever through the
stomach ; and if lavish hospitalities to the
foreigner could cover his shortcomings, political
and financial, would stop their mouths in more
ways than one. There is this to be said of his,
as of other royal entertainments — they promote
trade, and please the shopkeeping portion of the

THE ROYAL EOAD TO THE HEART. 341

community, as well as the invited guests. All
annual visitors to Cairo hope these hospitalities
may continue, however much the Khedive's
creditors may growl at them.

342 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SOUDAN.

What and where is the Soudan? — Its first annexation to Egypt —
Conquest and occupation by Meliemet Ali — His visit there —
Establishes Khartoum as its capital — Abbas Pacha's treatment of it
— Sai'd Pacha's visit — His proclamations — Attempts to connect it
with Cairo, by rail and river — Eeasons of failure — Mr. Fowler's plan,
adopted by the Khedive — Some interesting extracts from his reports
— Present position and prospects of Gordon Pacha.

THE Khedive has been loudly denounced in
Europe, for an insane ambition, in extending
his explorations and annexations into Central
Africa, and most loudly by those who know
least about the matter ; who counting only the
cost in cash expended, and the net results thus
far obtained, consider his projects in that direc-
tion as no better than idle dreams. Yet the
Khedive did not create, but inherited these
outlying provinces, to which indeed he has an-
nexed others, and sought to annex more ; but
his main purpose has been to make these depen-
dencies of Egypt pay.
Whether he has adopted the least expensive

WHAT IS THE SOUDAN? 343

or most judicious means of effecting this, is a
question on which opinions must and will differ.

Everybody has heard of Sir Samuel Baker's
mission, of which he has himself, in his most
interesting book, given such a graphic and
exciting account. But the subsequent explora-
tions of Gordon Pacha, through his " great
talent for silence," which is habitual with him,
as well as those of the American staff officers in
the Khedive's service, are as yet sealed books,
outside of the select circle of the Geographical
Societies ; and are not even guessed at by the
loudest denouncers of the Khedive's " waste
of men and means " in Central Africa. I regret
that it is not in my power to give definite
details of these explorations, of which I have
heard much orally, but have no other know-
ledge of. It is said that Gordon Pacha's journals
are in course of preparation by a competent
hand; and the report of Stone Pacha to the
Khedive, which will be found in the Appendix
(marked F), will prove that the staff officers have
not been idle, nor returned with empty hands
from their difficult and dangerous explorations.

Hence it may not be out of place, in this book,
briefly to sketch the origin and the peculiarities
of these Egyptian acquisitions, from the time of
Mehemet Ali, their first acquirer ; as well as what
has been done, or sought to be done, by sue-

344 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

cessive viceroys in the Soudan ; which still, to
most people, is nothing more than a mere
" geographical expression."

The annexation of the provinces, constituting
what is termed the Soudan, dates back more
than half a century. After the destruction of
the scattered relics of the Mamelukes in
Dongola, and the defeat of the Arab sheiks,
Mehemet Ali, thus master of Nubia, ordered an
exploratory survey of the provinces of Sen-
naar and Kordofan, and the countries remote
from the two Niles, the White and Blue. This
task he confided to Ibrahim and Ismail Pachas,
giving each a large force. One expeditionary
corps subjugated the country to the east as far
as Fazougli, on the Blue Nile ; the other
pushed on to the subjugation of the people
bordering on the White Nile. They had hoped
to acquire much gold, which was reported there
in large quantities, but found but little ; and the
washing of the river sands produced even less.
Nevertheless, they brought back many slaves,
and reduced Sennaar, and the tribes residing
near the river, to Egyptian sway.

In 1839 Mehemet Ali in person visited his
new acquisition, going as far as Fazougli- — after-
wards made an African Cayenne ; banishment
to which, in the days of Abbas, was considered
equivalent to a death-warrant.

SAID PACHA'S VISIT. 345

Mehemet All established the capital of the
Soudan at Khartoum, declared the navigation
of the White Nile free, established military
posts on both rivers, encouraged adventurous
men of science to explore the country, and
sought to introduce commercial ideas, and
civilization, into the minds of the negroes of
Central Africa.

But his good intentions were frustrated by the
perfidy and cupidity of those intrusted with
their execution. The unfortunate negroes were
made the objects of chase and of commerce by
the slave-traders, and Khartoum became a slave-
market. The consequence was that the natives
rebelled, and were only held in check by
military force ; and the taxes required a small
army to collect them.

" Such," says Dr. Abbate, who visited the
country in 1857, in the suite of Said Pacha,
" was the condition of the Soudan, when Said
Pacha mounted the throne of Egypt. Agricul-
ture almost abandoned, taxes out of all propor-
tion to production or means, extortioners every-
where ; the receipts of the Government barely
sufficient to meet the expenses of supporting its
authority, by reason of the military establish-
ment which was essential; general disorder in
the administration ; an open slave-trade, Almost
as openly protected by those in authority on the
spot."

346 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Shocked at this state of the provinces, of
which some rumours had reached him, Said
Pacha, seized with one of his generous impulses,
determined to go in person to right matters
in the Soudan ; and as with him to resolve
was to act, carried the design promptly into
execution.

Abbas Pacha had held on firmly to his
authority in the Soudan, where he kept up
always an imposing force, and exacted taxes
from that unfortunate population, through terror
and the unscrupulous agents he employed. It
is more than probable however, that the
expenses of keeping up an army in those
provinces, which at the same time abstracted so
much from the labour of Egypt (then as now
insufficient, and rendered even more so by the
necessity of sending troops to the Crimean war),
amounted to as much, or more than the sums
extorted from them in taxation, or by the com-
merce in slaves.

So the Soudan, for many years after its acqui-
sition, was more an ornamental than a useful
appanage to Egypt ; and although it has figured
in recent Egyptian Budgets to the figure of
£100,000 per annum, grave doubts may well be
entertained as to whether, as an investment, it
ever has yet paid ; taking into account the sums
annually expended on its administration, and

THE ROUTE HE TOOK. 347

the cost of the expeditions of annexation or
exploration, within or beyond its limits.

Said Pacha had been two and a half years on
the throne, when he conceived the idea of follow-
ing in the footsteps of his father, by making a
tour of inspection in these provinces, then only
five in number ; and carrying out the purposes
which Mehemet Ali had mapped out, but failed
to have executed.

It is honourable to the memory of Mehemet
Ali to have conceived, still more worthy of
praise to his son to have executed, the reforms
which partially rescued these provinces from
the reign of terror and of barbarism, which
seems to have been their normal condition,
and from which they have not yet entirely
emerged.

Early in the year 1857, Sai'd Pacha carried
out his design, and made a rapid tour through
the Soudan ; leaving Cairo 27th November,
and arriving at Khartoum 10th February of
the next year, making the trip in about two
months and a half. An army of 5000 men, fully
armed and equipped, with baggage waggons,
accompanied him half the way: so that it was
supposed he meditated more annexations in that
direction; but he changed his plan, and fear-
lessly went on without them. Arriving at
Berber, he summoned the chief men, and ordered

348 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

them to meet him at Khartoum ; he then ver-
bally announced the abolition of slavery, withdrew
his garrison from the town, and left the province
under the guardianship of the governor. He
then proceeded over the desert by Korosko to
Khartoum, where he also summoned the notables
of that neighbourhood ; and in four remarkable
" orders," addressed to the new governors, ap-
pointed by him over the five provinces of the
Soudan — Sennaar, Kordofan, Taka, Berber, and
Dongola — dated Khartoum, 26th January, 1857,
laid down a charter of rights, and definition of
their duties towards the Egyptian Government,
characterized equally by liberality, justice, and
wisdom, — by which, to use his own words, he
sought "to insure the prosperity of the people,
to improve their condition, relieve them from
unjust burdens and abuses of those in authority,
and at the same time point out their duties to
them."

"When," says this generous viceroy, "visit-
ing my provinces of the Soudan, I have seen
the wretchedness into which the population
has been plunged, by excessive impositions on
their lands and sakkias (water-wheels), and
especially their sufferings under the corvces
(compulsory labour) and unjust taxes, I at once
decided that justice demanded the abandonment
of such a system, and that henceforward tax-

HIS PROCLAMATIONS. 349

ation should be apportioned to the means of the
tax-payers ; so that all apprehensions might be
calmed, the country prosper, and no reason
longer exist either for complaint, or expatriation
on the part of its inhabitants."

Opening with these truly generous and princely
promises, he then laid down the details of ad-
ministration and taxation which, in his judg-
ment, would secure them ; and named new
officials to carry them into effect ; adding, " It is
also a matter of urgent necessity, as well as my
earnest wish, that regular and speedy communi-
cation should exist between the Soudan and my
capital. You must therefore at once organize a
postal service by dromedaries across the desert "
— going on to give specific directions as to how
it should be done. These admirable "orders"
conclude with a promise, that if succour be
needed from Cairo, from invading enemies,
they might rely upon it when they called;
and that if the inhabitants had good reason
to complain of the governors, or the sheiks
subordinate to them, " no guilty man should
escape punishment."

Having performed these acts of justice and
good administration with his usual impetuosity,
Sa'id Pacha returned to Cairo; and this, pro-
bably the most disinterested and patriotic act
of his short life, and shorter reign, has left not

350 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

even an echo behind it, either in Egypt or in
Europe.*

Sa'id Pacha also conceived the project of
uniting his provinces to the central seat of his
power, by railway or canal ; and detached the
French engineer, Mougel Bey, famous for his
connection with the barrage and Suez Canal,
to examine the best means of doing so ; and also
sent surveying parties to examine the possibility
of removing the obstructions in the Higher Nile,
but was deterred by the expense of these under-
takings.

The idea was then abandoned, but in 1865-66
the present Khedive revived it ; and a general
study of the country, with a view to a railway,
was made between Assouan and Khartoum by
Mr. Walker and Mr. Bray; but little came of it.

In 1865 Mr. Hawkshaw, the eminent engineer,
was consulted by the Khedive as to the canaliza-
tion of the first cataract, and recommended the
prosecution of that work. Mr. Fowler, whose
opinion must carry greater weight from his per-
sonal survey of the spot, suggests that had Mr.
Hawkshaw visited Assouan, he would have

* For the particulars of Said Pacha's visit to the Soudan, I am
indebted to the instructive and able account of it by Dr. Abbate,
of Cairo, an eminent physician and man of science, who was
attached to the viceroy's suite during the expedition. His " Notes "
of the tour (published by Plon, of Paris, in 1858) will richly repay
perusal.

THE SOUDAN RAILWAY. 351

" shrunk," as he does, from the unknown cost
and consequences of excavating the large
quantity of excessively hard rock, which must be
encountered in the excavation of a canal, " of
which no trustworthy estimates can possibly be
made." Mr. Fowler's substitute is " simply to
use the mechanical powers of the descending
waters of the cataract, to draw the boats along
a ship-incline overland, between the top and
bottom of the cataract." Between the recom-
mendations of two such high authorities in such
matters, the Khedive has found Mr. Fowler's
recommendation the best.

Some years later, early in the year 1871, the
Khedive called on the well-known English engi-
neer, Mr. John Fowler, who had become Con-
sulting Engineer-in- Chief in the Egyptian ser-
vice, to make detailed surveys and estimates,
and report on the question of communication
with the Soudan. In accordance with those
orders Mr. Fowler sent out, with full instruc-
tions, a staff of experienced surveyors, who spent
five months between the first cataract and
Khartoum, bringing back full surveys and sec-
tions, and much useful information bearing on
the point. Under these surveys the present
projected Soudan Eailway has been commenced,
and is already partially completed on the plan
proposed by Mr. Fowler, which embraced —

352 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

1st. A railway from Wady * Haifa to Shendy.

2nd. A ship-incline at the first cataract.

This plan Mr. Fowler has since modified, in
1877, by diverting the route and terminus from
Shendy to Khartoum, laying down a single line
of rails from Wady Haifa, near the second
cataract, to Khartoum — the total cost of which
has been estimated at £3,430,000, rolling stock,
stations, and accessories necessary for working
the traffic included. This line is among the
possibilities of the future, dependent chiefly on
the financial condition of the country.

In an extremely elaborate and interesting
report made to the Khedive by Mr. Fowler in
1873, the route to be taken by the railway as
then projected, together with the local and
general objects of the work, and the traffic to
be expected, are set forth with great fulness of
detail. In Mr. Fowler's opinion, "the expor-
tation of ivory and other Central African pro-
ducts will be increased and facilitated by such a
railway; but they will sink into insignificance
when compared with the grain, sugar, and
cotton, which will be produced and exported
from the vast alluvial plains of the Soudan."
Mr. Fowler then proceeds to show how such a

* The wadys are ravines cut out by water running down from the
desert plateau to the river, when sudden floods pour down during
tropical storms. They are of great depth and extent, and very
numerous.

TRAFFIC FROM KHARTOUM. 353

railway, with the addition of a ship-incline over
the first cataract, with a service of light steamers
connecting Wady Haifa with the present ter-
minus of the Egyptian railways near Ehoda (the
Soudan Eailway being extended to Massowah in
the Ked Sea), might shorten by three days
the route to India, China, and Australia, and
avoid the dangers and inconveniences of a part
of the Eed Sea passage. The chief traffic to be
expected, after establishment of the railway, will
be grain, sugar, cotton, gums, senna, dates,
ebony, skins, gold, ivory, ostrich feathers. The
return traffic southward would be cotton goods,
machinery, cutlery, tobacco, coffee, rice, earthen-
ware, beads, etc.

The present mode of conducting the traffic
from Khartoum, its great centre, involves five
changes in transit from Khartoum to Cairo — the
cargoes being taken in native boats down the
Nile, at Aboo Hammed; whence it is taken
across the Nubian desert on camels to Korosko ;
again transferred to boats and carried down to
the first cataract ; thence on camels to Shelal,
to Assouan ; thence again in boats down the
Nile to Boulak, the port of Cairo. From the
Kordofan and Darfour districts a similar system,
involving as many changes, has to be adopted.

The improvement of the river having been
found impracticable, the railway scheme, in con-

2 A

354 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

nection with some plan for the passage of the
first cataract, has engaged the attention of the
Khedive and his engineer-in~chief ; resulting
in Mr. Fowler's recommendation of a railway
of 3ft. Gin. grade, avoiding tunnels altogether,
with very small quantity of rock-cutting,
and, with the exception of a bridge across
the Nile, no considerable work of difficulty
on the whole line. Mr. Fowler concludes by
saying, " I see no reason why every part of
the railway, except the permanent way, rolling
stock, and Nile bridge, should not be performed
by Egyptians, under proper organization ; the
work to be completed within three years from its
commencement." The cost of the ship-incline
and its adjuncts Mr. Fowler estimates at
£200,000, and the time for its completion one
and a half years. The latter should, if possible,
precede the construction of the Soudan Railway,
so as to give increased facilities for general
intercommunication, and transport of men and
materials. Mr. Fowler also states as " one of
the national benefits to be conferred by this
great work, the facility of transporting, under
proper regulations, the surplus labour from Equa-
torial Africa to the cultivated districts of Egypt."
I give these as the views of this experienced
and eminent engineer, without endorsing or dis-
cussing them, for the purpose of showing the

THE HUNTER'S PARADISE. 355

inducements and the purposes for which this
Soudan Eailway has been projected.

The wadys, the rains, the floods the drift
sands, the desert, and the white ants, are the
chief obstacles the engineer will have to en-
counter, not to mention the wandering Bedouins,
the Eob Eoys of Africa.

The plague of ants, those apparently insig-
nificant but really terrible enemies to man and
his work in Central Africa, is thus described by
Mr. Fowler's engineer : " Along the whole route
(from Om-Badhr to El Fascher) white ants are
very numerous. All kinds of wood are eaten;
even the largest trees totally destroyed. Ordi-
nary wood sleepers for railways would not last
more than a few weeks. Ant-hills abounded,
some of which were four feet high and three feet
in diameter ; but eighteen inches in height
would be the general average."

This country is the paradise of the hunter,
all species of game, from the lion and leopard to
the hare and antelope, being abundant. The
locusts abound here, and are eaten by the natives;
while birds, from the ostrich and guinea-fowl to
wild duck and snipe, equally abound. Cotton
is grown in small quantities, but it is small and
coarse. The staple food of the whole people is
duku, a somewhat similar plant to the dhoura of
Egypt. It is smaller and not so sweet as the

356 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

dhoura, but an excellent food. The country is
well wooded, but the timber is small and only fit
for fuel, four inches in diameter being the
average size of the main stems. In the wadys
near Khartoum, sheep, goats, and cattle abound ;
there is good land, but cultivation is small for
want of settled labour.

Mr. Fowler thus concludes his report: — "I
should have been better satisfied if, before con-
cluding this report, I could have added a calcu-
lation as to the precise amount of traffic and
revenue to be expected from the railway. The
largest portion of the traffic, however, as pre-
viously explained, will only exist after the ac-
commodation for it has been provided, and
therefore any calculation must depend on the
assumption of figures for which there are not,
nor can be, any existing data

" In the particular case of the Soudan Kail-
way and its probable traffic, it is a fact which
cannot be disputed that the extent of land near
its southern terminus, or within reach of it by
navigable waters, or land carriage, which is
capable of producing the finest crops of cotton,
grain, and sugar, is practically unlimited ; and
that during the time requisite for the construc-
tion of the railway, such area may be brought
into cultivation as will furnish immediate and
considerable traffic.

EXPLOKATION AND ANNEXATION. 357

" The vast quantities of timber of various
kinds which will become cheaply accessible to
the proposed railway will supply fuel to the
locomotives for a long period of time, and one of
the most important items in the working ex-
penses of the railway will thereby be largely
reduced.

" Assuming the working expenses of the
Soudan Railway to be sixty per cent, of the
gross receipts (which is seven per cent, higher
than the average working expenses of all the
Indian railways), it can scarcely be doubted that
the traffic from the lo,cal and through sources
enumerated will yield a satisfactory return upon
the small cost of the proposed railway. Under
any circumstances, a large increase to the
national wealth of Egypt must necessarily
follow such an opening up of its undeveloped

resources."

From the statements of this experienced
engineer, it will be seen that the trade which is
to pay for the construction and maintenance of
this road will have chiefly to be created by it.

During the reign of the Khedive immense
strides in Central African exploration have been
made, with his assistance, and by his employes.^
both European, American, and native. Within
the last four years Darfour has become a part
of Egypt ; the White Nile has been thoroughly

358 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

explored and made navigable ; the great equa-
torial lakes and the surrounding country have
been traversed by the feet, and reported on by
the ready pens, of the Khedive's adventurous
emissaries, and efforts made to fix and define
the very disputed boundary between Egyptian
and Abyssinian soil. Colonels Colston, Purdy,
Mason, and Prout, American staff officers, with
Mitchell, the geologist — recently a captive in
Abyssinian hands, but now liberated — have made
very thorough explorations on different lines in
the interior; the latter having discovered two
ancient gold mines, the shafts still open, be-
tween the Nile and the Red Sea, near Kennar.
Several steamers are now plying on the Nile,
between Khartoum and Eagaff, above which the
rapids render the river unnavigable.

The Khedive has possession now not only of
several ports on the Ked Sea, including Mas-
sowah, but about two years since obtained a very
important one in addition, by purchase, from the
then impecunious Sultan — the port of Zeila,
situated at the extremity of a peninsula on
the Somala coast, which opens rich districts,
producing coffee, gums, ivory, wool, etc., to
Egyptian trade.

The Abyssinian king, Johannes, has recently
been keeping Massowah in a state of siege, and
covets much the possession of that port, which

EGYPT AND ABYSSINIA. 359

would give him an outlet to the sea, which
Abyssinia much needs. The latest tidings from
that point indicate that negotiations were going
on, virtually giving joint possession of that port
to Egypt and Abyssinia, for all practical pur-
poses ; but as yet no treaty has been concluded.

The Soudan has proved a graveyard for many
governors and explorers, both foreign and native.
Here perished the two Arakel Beys — father and
son — the one falling a victim to the climate in
early manhood, while governor at Khartoum,
many years since ; the latter, as Governor of
Massowah, accompanying the ill-starred expedi-
tion of Arendrup, and slain with him. Here
also was foully slaughtered Minzinger Pacha,
whose name and reputation rank with those of
Baker and Gordon Pachas, as pioneer and ex-
plorer. Here, too, were left the mortal remains
of the two gallant and promising sons of Linant
Pacha, like the famous grenadier of France,
their countrymen, dead on "the field of honour,'*
in these fatal precincts. To give the long list of
victims the climate and the barbarous natives
have claimed, would make a long and mournful
bead-roll. Let us hope that the new governor-
general may enjoy better fortune than the great
majority of his pioneers.

Gordon Pacha, when last heard from, had
reached Khartoum, his seat of government, but

360 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

was reported as having been threatened with
annoyance from King Johannes, on the one
hand, and King M'Tesa, on the other; while
Darfour was also said to he in revolt. To bind
together the scattered sheaves of his province
will require no small amount of patience, skill,
and courage ; his friends claim all those qualities
for him, and he has full power now to pursue his
own policy.

Could the railway communication be once
completed and opened between Khartoum and
civilization, his task would be rendered far
easier, and the province be made profitable to
Egypt, as well as more manageable ; until then
the difficulties and dangers of his position can-
not be overrated.

The Budget report of 1873 puts down the
receipts from the Soudan at ^100,000.

" History teaches us," says Mariette Bey,
" that Egypt is bounded on the north by the
Mediterranean, on the south by the Cataract of
Assouan. But history, in imposing these limits,
has not taken into account the indications fur-
nished by geographical or race peculiarities.
Over the north-west portion of the African con-
tinent stretches an immense zone of earth
formed by the Nile, and fertilized by it alone.
Scattered over its banks you find two different
races, the one uncultivated, savage, incapable of

EGYPT'S BOUNDARIES. 361

self-government ; the other a nation worthy the
world's admiration for its glory, its industry, and
all the elements of civilization that it nourishes
in its bosom. History should say that wherever
flows the Nile, there her rights and her dominion
should extend."

The language of the eloquent Frenchman, who
has done so much to bring Egypt's buried
history and treasures to light, seems to convey
the dominant idea of three generations of the
line of Mehemet Ali, and to account for the
trouble, labour, treasure, and life they have
squandered on the exploration and annexation
of the Soudan. If it be a dream, it surely is a
great and noble one, to reclaim to law, culture,
and civilization the rich tracts now rank and
pestiferous with jungle, and the plains over which
still roams, as in the days of Abraham, the
wandering nomad, with his flocks and herds ; or,
descending lower still, where man becomes a
man-hunter, and preys on his own kind. The
task to which Livingstone and so many other
Christian men devoted their lives, surely cannot
be unworthy of praise in a Mussulman ruler to
attempt ; even though ambition and love of gain
may mingle with his higher aspiration.

362 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTEE XXII.

IMPKOVEMENTS AND PUBLIC WORKS IN EGYPT.

Public improvements — Where some of the money has gone — General
statement of public works and improvements during the present
reign — Thirty or forty millions of pounds' worth accounted for —
What and where are these improvements ? — Harbour and lighthouse
improvements — Gas and water works — Merchant marine — Thirteen
hundred miles of railway completed in last twelve years.

THE statement has been broadly made, and as
recklessly repeated, in print and in speech, that
the Khedive " has borrowed and raised ninety
millions of money, and has nothing to show for
it but a few lath and plaster palaces."

Now, without attempting to act as the advo-
cate of a prince, who certainly has been very
wasteful of his own and other people's means,
and has allowed his building mania to cumber
the ground with a great many useless palaces
for himself and family, justice compels me to say
that the charge is as unjust and rash as it is
false. This I shall proceed to prove by facts and
figures accessible to every one who will take the

PUBLIC WORKS. 363

trouble to look them up. The truth is that
the improvements and public works begun and
completed in Egypt during the past twelve
years have been marvellous, and unequalled by
any other country of quadruple the area and
population of Egypt ; and they have been of
such a character as hereafter to enhance im-
mensely the resources and prosperity of the
country. But twenty-five years ago Eobert
Stephenson commenced the single line from
Alexandria to Suez, little more than 230 miles
in length. Now there are more than 1300 miles
completed, and the Khedive is pushing his lines
of railways and telegraphs into the very heart of
Central Africa. The Soudan line alone will be
1100 miles long, if the engineer's plans be carried
out ; but of course it will require several years
to complete so great a work : even should this
line be carried out on the grand proportions
suggested by the engineer, which I doubt.

1st. The completion of the Suez Canal, also
was the work of the Khedive, although the heavy
cost to Egypt was due to Sai'd Pacha's impru-
dent concessions, and the indemnity adjudged
by the Emperor Napoleon while acting as arbi-
trator. For these Ismail Pacha cannot justly
be made responsible, the pressure put upon
him being greater than he could resist. Still,
that great work may hereafter indemnify the

364 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

country when it becomes the property of
Egypt; as in justice it should, if Egypt should
continue independent, and be sufficiently sol-
vent, at the expiration of the term agreed on,
to meet her obligations to the company and
enter into possession. The alleged cost of
this enterprise to Egypt is estimated in the
Statistique — a Government publication — to have
reached £10,000,000, and other estimates, in-
cluding incidental expenses, interest, etc., run
it up as high as £17,000,000.

In other public works of more immediate
utility to Egypt — such as the lighting the cities
with gas, supplying water by means of exten-
sive water-works, as well as pure air through
street improvements — the reign of the Khedive
has been a busy one, as well as in the extension
of railway and telegraph lines, internal canals,
docks, and lighthouses.

All these expenditures, it will be seen, were
made for a great public purpose, and constitute
part of the capital of the country, and may be
considered as good investments. While Turkey
has squandered the millions borrowed from
Europe, and wrung from her own subjects, in
extravagance and folly, in building palaces and
buying ironclads exclusively, attending neither
to the moral nor material advancement of her
population or territory, Egypt can point to her

COST OF EAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 365

great public works and improving people with
just pride. Why Europe insists that Sinbad
(Egypt) should carry on his back this " Old Man
of the Sea" (Turkey), to the tune of £635,000
tribute per annum, is a political mystery which
may soon be solved, or dissolved. In the name
of Justice and Progress we may rejoice that
these Siamese twins can be cut asunder without
danger to the living one : and without calling
Eussia in to act as surgeon. Besides the great
public works enumerated, more than a hundred
new canals have been dug for irrigation purposes,
two-thirds of which are in Lower Egypt ; more
than 500 new bridges built to facilitate trans-
portation of the crops, one of which — that con-
necting Cairo with the island of Ghezireh — is
a magnificent engineering work. Both at Cairo
and Alexandria are gas and water works, sup-
plying those cities, and large gasometers.

2nd. The cost of the railway constructions
and repairs during the last twelve years may be
estimated at about £10,000,000, and the fact
that that portion of the public debt guaranteed
by these railways is regarded and termed " a
preference stock," proves that the investment
has been a good one.

3rd. The harbour works at Alexandria and
Suez, which are of great utility, and promise to
improve greatly the commerce of the country,

366 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

have absorbed several millions more, possibly
.£3,000,000 or £4,000,000. It is calculated that
the revenues of the port of Alexandria may be
raised to £200,000 annually, which would pay
a handsome interest on the outlay, when added
to those of Suez.

4th. The irrigating canals, several hundreds
of miles of which the Khedive has made or
improved during his reign, for the cost of which
no statistics exist, must have absorbed much
money ; though I fear a great deal of fellah flesh
and blood went into them, too, for very inade-
quate wages (if any), under the corvee system.

5th. The lighthouses erected on the Eed Sea
and Mediterranean coasts have supplied a great
want to foreign and native commerce. Their
cost has certainly been £200,000. The intro-
duction of gas and water, improvements in
sewerage, paving, and embellishment of Cairo,
Alexandria, and Suez, are said to have cost
£3,000,000 more.

6th. A fleet of merchant steamers to ply
between Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, which is
said to have cost £1,500,000 ; and

7th. The expeditions to Central Africa, and
the Abyssinian campaign — works of dubious
necessity and of no immediate utility — doubt-
less swallowed up £2,000,000 more.

So that, even from this rapid and imperfect

OTHEE PUBLIC WOKKS. 367

summary of public improvements, accomplished
within the last decade, it will be seen that the
Khedive really has something to show, more
than his palaces, for the millions expended ;
although even his best friend or most obsequious
flatterer cannot venture to say he has shown
much judgment, or a proper sense of his own
means and those of the country, in many of the
works he has undertaken, or completed.

He can show public works to the value of
£20,000,000 or £30,000,000 for his twelve years'
administration of the country, as a visible proof
that, although he may have squandered some
of the public money, he certainly has not
thrown half of it away in ostentatious personal
extravagances. Immense improvements also
have been made in the public roads leading
out of Cairo and Alexandria, as well as in the
streets of those cities. The roads around Cairo,
for example, and the bridges in that neighboiir-
hood are worthy of all praise, and must have
cost much hardf cash, as well as indirectly
through the labour employed upon them, even
granting the labourers were not paid in money.

That Egypt is able to-day to astonish the rest
of the world by the immense revenues she is
able to dig out of her small area of soil — for all
the money must come out of the land — is due in
great part to the improvements made in irriga-

368 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

tion and railway extension, which at once greatly
increase the produce of the soil, and render
transportation of produce much quicker, easier,
and less costly than it used to he. This much,
I think, is due to the Khedive to admit, what-
ever his sins or his shortcomings may have heen
as a ruler and a financier, and however much of
public money he may have wasted in needless
extravagances for his own or his children's
luxury or state.

( 369 )

CHAPTEE XXIII.

THE ARMY OF EGYPT.

An indeterminate quantity — Curious exemption of Cairenes and Alex-
andrians from conscription — How the conscription is made — What
successive viceroys have done for the army — The army and the
military chest — Excellent drill and organization of the forces — The
American and other foreign officers — The Khedive's true, and
Egypt's wisest policy.

THE Egyptian army has always been a kind of
indeterminate quantity, concerning which but
little was allowed to be known to the world at
large, or outside the immediate circle of the
chief military men who controlled it.

Until 1873 its number was jealously limited
by the Sublime Porte ; but the persuasive powers
of the Khedive, backed by the potential argu-
ment of "backsheesh," which insured his own
elevation in rank and title, the direct line of
succession, and his independence of Constan-
tinople in so far as the internal administration
of Egypt was involved, obtained also the con-
cession of raising his army to any number that
pleased him.

2B

370 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Of this permission the Khedive has made no
great use thus far; having rather diminished
than increased his effective force, as far as the
facts can be known ; and having returned to the
cultivation of the fields, " on leave," large
bodies of his soldiers, substituting for them in
part the black recruits from the Soudan.

One peculiar feature of the Egyptian army is
the incorporation of the native Christian element
in its ranks ; the levies from Upper Egypt being
drawn chiefly from the Copt Christians, who con-
stitute a considerable portion of the population
in some of the provinces of Upper Egypt — many
of the villages, especially on or near the Nile,
being peopled by them. These men do not
regard this exceptional mark of their equality
with their Mussulman countrymen as a great
favour : being a peaceful race, and preferring
tranquil to warlike pursuits. Nevertheless the
fact is not without its significance, as it shows
the desire of the Khedive not to keep up
invidious discriminations, prevailing everywhere
else throughout the Ottoman dominions.

Another noteworthy peculiarity — although
one of exclusion — is the exemption from military
duty extended to the inhabitants of the two great
cities of Alexandria and Cairo, in virtue of an
ancient privilege exempting them from bearing
arms. The reason for which this exemption was

CURIOUS EXEMPTION. 371

granted, I have not been able to discover ; but
in a country, and among a people, where custom
has the binding force of law, the antiquity of the
usage suffices to insure its perpetuation, even
under a rule as absolute as that of the Khedive.
Thus at least one-tenth of the population are
exempted by this curious privilege from the con-
scription which, outside of the foreign element,
is theoretically universal in its application to all
classes and creeds of the community.

The exemption is unjust to the native popu-
lation on many accounts ; and because it throws
the burden of this injurious system of recruiting
on the rural population exclusively. The cities
contain the great bulk of the element alien in
blood and birth to Egypt — the trading, shop-
keeping, and servant class, who drift into the
cities from neighbouring countries.

Thus in Cairo you find a large population
composed of an almost infinite variety of races,
who should bear the burdens, as they enjoy the
benefits, of the Egyptian Government; Euro-
peans, who are protected by the capitulations,
alone excepted.

Thus, at Cairo and Alexandria you see num-
bers of Syrians, of Copts, of Armenians, of
Israelites, of Berbers, of Nubians, of Abys-
sinians, rayah Greeks, and Turks, all of whom
numbering probably 150,000, are exempted

372 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

from conscription in these two cities alone.
This is one among the many unaccountable
anomalies of the Egyptian administration. If
you inquire of a high functionary why this
custom is allowed to continue, he shrugs his
shoulders and answers, " Who knows ? It was
always so."

Apart from these exceptional cases however,
the conscription is sternly enforced elsewhere,
and theoretically with impartiality ; but King
Backsheesh can always interpose successfully
here, througii the venality of the agents em-
ployed, who always "make a good thing of it;"
and hence the draft ever falls on that portion of
the able-bodied population most wanted for the
cultivation of the fields, especially in the upper
country, where the population is sparse. Yet it
is on this section that the twin abuses of Egyp-
tian administration — the conscription and the
corvee — weigh most heavily on the industrious
poor, who cannot buy exemption through in-
fluence or money. In addition to the blinding
effects of backsheesh on the recruiting officer,
the recruit is allowed to return from service
after one year's duty, on payment of a fixed
sum.

As there are no territorial commands, or peace
organizations into brigades and divisions, as in
European armies, the system, or want of system

CRUELTIES OF CONSCRIPTION*. 373

in the military organization, can be easily com-
prehended hy military men.

There may be some pretence at rotation, and
as to an annual contingent; but in reality the
conscription is enforced "by superior orders,"
whenever the whim or the necessity for more
soldiers is felt by the Khedive; and then the
conscription is carried out much on the old
system, so often described by indignant tourists,
who have seen gangs of apparent convicts,
chained together, and djiven by soldiers to the
place of embarkation, escorted by howling and
shrieking women, who see with them their
daily bread and that of their children taken
away. Those unpleasant sights and scenes have
not yet vanished from the Egyptian soil, either
for conscription or corvee; but it is high time
that they should ; if reform is to be more than
a hollow show nd a mockery.

The acquisition of the Soudan has brought
some alleviation to the lot of the fellah, inas-
much as the savage blacks of Central Africa
have been found to make good soldiers ; and you
now see whole regiments of these, who have
replaced the agricultural labourer, wisely sent
home to till his fields and take care of his
family. This is the first actual benefit accruing
to Egypt from these acquisitions ; and it may
be greatly extended, by drawing on that savage

374 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

swarm of humanity — warriors by instinct — and
releasing the gentle fellah from a duty, for
which neither his nature, nor any amount of
training can fit him. The secret of the domi-
nation exercised over the Arab race by a mere
handful of Turks, in garrison towns through-
out Egypt and Syria, establishes this truth in-
contestably.

The successors of the warrior kings, Mehemet
Ali and Ibrahim, have made efforts to keep up
an army of respectable proportions, in so far as
the jealousy of the Sultan would permit. Abbas
kept up more than the regulation number, in-
cluding a large force to overawe the Soudan, and
the contingent sent to the Crimea ; at one time
said to have risen to 100,000 men.

Sai'd Pacha, in the early part of his reign,
" played soldier " a good deal ; but failing health
and other causes induced him to neglect and
greatly diminish his soldiery, in the latter p.art
of it, until it is said to have dwindled down,
in peace times, to about 5000 men (the war
strength to 15,000) actually under arms, or im-
mediately available. The Khedive has been
busy in this, as in all other matters of internal
administration; though what the actual strength
of his army has been, or may now be, is known
only to the Chief of Staff, Stone Pacha, who can
keep a secret as well as any man alive.

THE ARMY OF EGYPT. 375

Theoretically the military force of Egypt con-
sists of —

1. The regular army, with its reserve.

2. Irregular or local troops.

3. The gendarmerie, uniformed and mounted.

There are stated to be eighteen infantry regi-
ments, of three battalions each ; four battalions
of rifles; four regiments of cavalry; and 144
guns — among them some large Krupps and
Armstrongs.

The number of men in the regiments and
batteries varies so much, in consequence of con-
stant practical disbandments (in the shape of.
leave, when the military chest is empty, as it
often is), that it is impossible even to guess, at
any time, as to the actual effective force of the
Egyptian army.

Of their admirable training, drill, and disci-
pline, under the supervision of the exceedingly
able staff of American, and other foreign officers,
in the Khedive's service, as well as of the
instruction given officers in the polytechnic
schools, foreign military observers speak most
highly; and the fact is obvious to the most
careless observer, as these troops march past the
hotels. A finer looking soldiery can be seen
nowhere ; and that some of the native officers
at least are clever, an inspection of their drill,
and a visit to the monthly seances of the Geo-

376 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

graphical Society, where one of them occasion-
ally reads a report of his explorations, will prove
to the most prejudiced stickler for caste and
colour.

I am told that at present their weak point is
in their officers ; but my own private opinion is
that they are not the stuff good soldiers are
made of, except the Soudanese, and had better
be devoted to the arts and pursuits of peace,
than to the right royal trade of murder by
wholesale.

The infantry are chiefly armed with the
Kemington rifle ; and of arms and ammunition
the Khedive has laid in so abundant a store,
as to have sent millions of fixed ammunition to
Constantinople as a present, in addition to his
contingent of troops and their supplies.

Each cavalry regiment is armed partly with
the lance, partly with the carbine.

The irregular cavalry is supplied by the
Bedouins, who furnish their own arms and
horses, and are commanded by their own chiefs.
They resemble the Cossacks in appearance, and
in more particulars than one.

We learn from foreign sources that
"Nothing more than a rough estimate of the
Egyptian army is possible, but it has been
calculated that with regiments filled up from
the reserves, the fighting strength of the regular

THE KHEDIVE'S LITTLE WARS. 377

army would be about 60,000, with 144 guns.
There would remain a reserve of about 30,000,
and an irregular force of possibly 60,000 more ;
but the probability is, that the strength of the
army would entirely depend at any given
moment on the amount of money in the posses-
sion of the Khedive at the time and the con-
scription three years previously.''

As far as I have been able to pick up any
information on this jealously guarded secret, the
above estimate is in the main correct.

The chief use of the Egyptian army, outside
of the " gendarmerie," or local police force
(which is well armed, uniformed, and disciplined,
and preserves peace and order admirably), is for
the protection of the frontier against the
desert Bedouins on the one side, and from the
Abyssinians on the other ; both of whose raiding
propensities are very great, and require to be
constantly kept in check.

I do not propose here to enter into a discus-
sion on the Khedive's little wars with his
neighbours, which I sincerely believe were forced
upon him, as he is more a man of peace than a
man of blood ; but those who are curious con-
cerning the last and most costly of them, will
find a truthful account of it, taken from the
notes of a staff-officer, in the July number of
Blacfavood's Magazine, in which the whole story

378 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

is intelligibly and impartially told. It is pro-
bable, however, that this disastrous experiment
will not soon be willingly repeated by the Khedive.

The duties of the foreign staff-officers are not
confined to the drilling and instruction of officers
and privates, and organization of the army.
They have been busily and usefully employed
in the work of exploration in the Soudan, and
elsewhere ; and have done immense service in
ascertaining and reporting on those portions of
the Khedive's Egypt, of which little or nothing
was previously known. The report of the Chief
of Staff, Stone Pacha (as yet, I believe, un-
published), to be found in the Appendix, will
show where they have gone, and what they
have done.*

In a letter from one of those officers to me, he
says: — "Egypt is abused for spending money
on the Soudan Railway; but the reconnoitring
officers find hundreds of thousands of cattle, fat
and sleek. Now, when the railway shall be
finished to Dongola, in three or four years, that
station will be within easy driving reach of those
vast herds, and instead of importing many
thousands of thousands of cattle every year from
Greece to Turkey, Egypt can bring down her
own cattle from her own provinces, and that so
cheaply that she might even export cattle to
Europe."

See Appendix F.

THE KHEDIVE'S TRUE POLICY. 379

The Khedive is shrewd enough to see and
know that the safety of his patrimony, and
integrity of Egypt, do not depend on and could
never be protected by arms alone ; but rest on
the determination of the Great Powers of Europe,
who gave and can take away his heritage, should
they ever deem it necessary to change the
Egyptian status for selfish or for State motives.
He further understands, better than most
princes, the wisdom of the saying of Lysander,
that " when the lion's skin is too short, it may
be eked out by the fox's ! " and both his precept
and his practice have accorded with this ancient
maxim : which possibly he never heard of, though
he has acted upon it.

In European jealousies lies Egyptian safety —
not in arms or armaments, nor in the wish or
will of the dying dotard at Constantinople,
whose ominous shadow has so long veiled the
light and life of Egypt, the blood of whose
peaceful people is even now being poured out on
foreign battle fields, that the waning Crescent
may not utterly disappear from the Western
sky.

If* Ismail Khedive is wise, he will turn his
attention henceforth more to the arts of peace
than to those of war ; although he does well in
keeping up a sufficient force for the internal
protection of his territory and people, against his

380 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

lawless border neighbours ; and in securing the
best military talent from abroad, to make a
small but efficient army do the duty of a larger
one.

( 381 )

CHAPTEE XXIV.

THE SHADOW OF THE STKANGER.

Egypt's experience — Her three periods : Pagan, Christian, and Mus-
sulman— International jealousies — Shall the Mediterranean be a
French or English " lake "?— - Curious history of this rivalry in
regard to the overland transit — Cost to Egypt of conciliating
the rival nationalities — Mariette Bey's characterization of the
Egyptians — The irony of their destiny— The shadow of the stranger
eclipsing native government — Laissez nous faire !

EGYPT, during her long life of many thousands
of years, has passed through three periods :
Pagan, Christian, and Mussulman. The first is
supposed to have endured for upwards of 5000
years, terminating A.D. 381 ; the second lasted
259 years, ending A.D. 640 ; and the third com-
menced at the latter period, and endures to the
present time — Egypt continuing subject ever to
Constantinople, until her quasi-independence
was obtained by Mehemet Ali, and under many
different phases, resolutely maintained by his
successors.

Her future lot, at this moment, he would
indeed be a bold man who would venture to

382 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

predict; for clouds and darkness now veil her
horizon.

During the reigns of successive viceroys,
England and France have alternately exerted
the greatest influence at the viceroyal court ;
and until the fatal day of Sedan, the latter,
assimilating more in character and language to
the successors of Mehemet Ali, had certainly
enjoyed the greatest favour, and shaped more
visibly the political action of the viceroys. But
since that disastrous time the star of France has
waned, that of England risen on the Egyptian
firmament ; until the wish or will of the British
Cabinet has become a law unto Egypt, almost as
binding as the ancient "laws of the Medes and
Persians " were said to have been.

How France and Frenchmen chafe at this,
may be seen in their jealous insist ance on more
than equal representation on the new tribunals,
for their nationality ; as well as in the late
financial arrangements, where if English agents
have the collection, French agents have the
control over the disbursement, of the public
funds; and whereas England sends to Egypt
gentlemen skilled in public accounts, France
sends her most practised diplomats, to be near
the Khedive.

This international jealousy is not confined to
the two nations named, for it exists in other

INTERNATIONAL JEALOUSIES. 383

nationalities, who have, or suppose they have, a
political or commercial interest in Egypt ; yet
its greatest manifestation has hitherto come
from the two great Powers, whose struggle for
the last half century has been, whether the
Mediterranean was to become a French or an
English "lake."

A curious exhibition of this feeling has just
been made in France — rendered more keenly
sensitive by the sense of lost prestige and power,
since she dashed herself against the German
Colossus.

Eeports having been generally circulated, of
the initiation of negotiations between England
and the Porte, for the purchase of the eminent
domain in the land occupied by the Suez Canal,
the Moniteur (always regarded as the mouth-
piece of the existing Government of France)
published conspicuously the following remark-
able comment thereupon, towards the end of
June in the present year : —

"A rumour reaches us from London which,
no doubt, is without foundation, but to which it
appears to us important to call attention. It is
said that the Ottoman Government has offered
to make over to England for twenty-five millions
of francs the Sultan's ' territorial rights ' over
the Suez Canal. In the first place, we wish to
remark that the Sultan has had no ' territorial

384 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

rights ' in Egypt since 1840, when the Suhlime
Porte, with the assent and sanction of the
Powers, made the viceroyalty of Egypt the
exclusive and hereditary apanage of the family
of Mehemet Ali. We will also add that the
Khedive, as master of Egypt, and consequently
of the territory which the canal goes through,
has undertaken to ' exploiter,' in common with
the Suez Canal Company, the land on hoth
banks of the canal for a period of ninety-nine
years. It would be requisite, to realize this
news from London, to assume that, in the
first place, the present Sultan should revoke the
hereditary rights held by the Khedive since 1840
with the sanction of the Powers ; and next, that
a new code should permit a sovereign to sell, for
his own benefit, the private estates existing in
his empire." *

The significance of this note consists in its
publication by the semi-official organ of the
French Foreign Office. Its animus is evident ;
and it truly represents French feeling in and out
of Egypt.

So long as the two Powers were in equipoise,
successive viceroys were adroit enough to play

* The key to this semi-official note is, most probably, the publica-
tion, in the Nineteenth Century magazine, of Mr. Edward Dicey's
very powerful article, advocating England's immediate appropriation
of Lower Egypt and the Suez Canal, by purchase or otherwise, as a
measure of national safety.

AN EGYPTIAN STUMBLING-BLOCK. 385

the one against the other, for their own protec-
tion ; appealing to the outside Powers as make-
weights. But recently, as before remarked, the
one has preponderating influence ; and hence
the ill-concealed jealousy of the other ; which
hereafter may find anew its battlefield in Egypt,
when France recovers from her present political
eclipse in the Orient.

One of the greatest stumbling-blocks in the
path of Egyptian progress has been the necessity
of conciliating, at very heavy cost, all the rival
nationalities in Egypt, representing in. all about
100,000, out of her population of 5,500,000 ! For
this small quantity of leaven is made to leaven
the whole loaf, and swell enormously the annual
Egyptian Budget, by the heavy additional
expenditure imposed on Egypt, by the presence
of the stranger on her soil.

A shrewd observer, recently writing from the
spot, has remarked that the great cost of the
new reform measures has arisen from this cause,
which "compels the Khedive to employ half a
dozen persons to do the ivork of one! " citing the
fact of twelve nationalities being represented on
the judicial tribunals ; to which he might have
added, that some of the most favoured of these
have three or four to their share; besides a
crowd of minor officers of court. The same is
the case as to the public debt commission, the

2c

386 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

railway, and other administrations. Very curious
manifestations of this rivalry are constantly
being made, adding greatly to the perplexities
of the Khedive, and to the cost of his adminis-
trations. It is difficult to see how this evil is to
be done away with, so long as the causes for it
exist, and Egyptians and Foreign Governments
occupy the same relative positions. Yet, pro-
bably, the permanence of the dynasty of Mehemet
Ali has been due as much to the eternal inter-
meddling and undying jealousies of the foreign
Powers, in regard to Egypt, as to the ability of
his successors, who certainly have played that
card very skilfully, however much they may
have erred as to other points of the game. To-
day the necessity of continued interposition in
Egyptian affairs, both political and financial,
seems to be inevitable ; iri consequence of the
existing complications, familiar to all the world.
Whether the present anomalous condition of
things can continue; whether an imperium in
imperio — through which a practically absolute
ruler is divested of his authority and control
over all his administrations, and his treasury, by
a foreign commission, and a foreign judicial
tribunal, appointed and paid by himself to sit
in judgment on his acts — can be preserved in
Egypt : and the grandson of Mehemet Ali be
long content to rest in this attitude before his

THE SHADOW OF THE STRANGEK. 387

own people and the world, is a question that
time alone can solve.

The shadow of the stranger, projected over
Egypt, now hides both the throne and the native
administration. Whether it will ever again be
removed, and throne and country pass under
the protectorate of one, instead of many foreign
Powers, or its present ruler resume the powers
he has temporarily abdicated, with renewed
prestige and replenished treasury, is an Egyptian
riddle, more puzzling than any ever propounded
by its ancient Sphinx.

When the tardily appreciated, and unrewarded
enterprise of Lieutenant Waghorn, had demon-
strated the feasibility of the overland transit
through Egypt, and England sought to utilize
it by a line of railway from Alexandria to Cairo,
French jealousy immediately strove to bar the
way; and for some time did so successfully.
From a curious pamphlet, published by an old
resident of Egypt, in 1851, the following par-
ticulars of this struggle are taken — rendered
doubly interesting at this moment, in conse-
quence of the impending struggle over the Suez
Canal property, foreshadowed by several recent
indications. The writer says :—

" The first care of France, after the settle-
ment of 1841, was to remove from the mind of
Mehernet Ali the bad feeling he naturally

388 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

entertained towards her, for the non-performance
of those promises, on the reliance of which he
had risked his very existence. It was a difficult
task ; but by working alternately on his amour-
propre, and on his fears, she ultimately suc-
ceeded. The most marked and delicate atten-
tions were resorted to by Louis Philippe, and the
members of his family ; while at the same time,
the French employes in Egypt, and the French
party in the native ranks, constantly held out
that Great Britain had aggressive views upon
Egypt, and that being the half-way house to
India, she would never rest until she had made
it her own. Her progress in India was con-
stantly referred to, and her gradual steps from
commercial relations to exclusive sovereignty
and military possession, were daily urged upon
the Pacha's notice. At the same time he was
taught to believe, that France alone could save
him from similar consequences, at the grasping
hand of England. A host of Frenchmen were
taken into his service, some of whom were to
be met with in every administration ; many of
them holding important posts, with the rank of
pacha and bey ; and these, aided by such Turks
and Egyptians as had received their education
at Paris, established an all-powerful influence on
the action of Government — an influence whose
force was strained to the uttermost to thwart

THE OVERLAND TRANSIT. 389

any measure which seemed, in the most remote
manner, to forward British interests.

"To Great Britain the immense importance of
railway communication between the two seas,
was one of those occasions which seemed to call
for the most energetic exertion of this influence ;
nor did French jealousy fail to appreciate it.
Accordingly, the opposition of France to this
railroad, has ever been of the most determined
nature. Its existence, or its non-existence,
seemed the point on which her policy turned ;
and eventually it became a question involving
her support or her hostility.

" Twice the French party succeeded in in-
ducing Mehemet Ali to abandon the project :
although at one time more than thirty miles of
rail were actually bought, and for fifteen years
were lying unused in the Government stores.

"It was the same party, and the same influence,
which planned, and caused to be executed, the
fortifications of Alexandria, and the whole sea-
coast of Egypt. . . ,

"An English company had been formed for the
transit of passengers and goods through Egypt,
in connection with the steam communications
to Alexandria and Suez. Great privileges had
been granted it by the local Government ; a
large capital was embarked in building station-
houses in the desert, in providing steamboats,

390 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

carriages, horses, and other means of convey-
ance. ... Its growing importance attracted the
jealousy of the French party, and its removal
from English hands was decided upon.

"They persuaded the Pacha, that the existence
of so powerful a foreign company was detrimental
to his interests; and that some day it might
become a stepping-stone for the aggressive views
of Great Britain upon Egypt. The station-
houses, they said, would form the nucleus of
forts, and the steamers on the Nile might,
with little difficulty and upon some trivial pre-
tence, be easily converted into vessels of war.
With such arguments they persuaded Mehemet
Ali to take the transit into his own hands, and
partly by force, and partly by promises of large
compensation, he became the proprietor.

"These facts suffice to show to what extent the
mind of Mehemet Ali was held in subjection by
his French allies. In return for this compliant
submission to their authority, he received, it is
true, more solid proofs of friendship than those
conveyed in the shape of presents, flattery, and
courteous attentions. They lent him their firm
support at Constantinople ; and to the day of his
death aided him in resisting every semblance
of encroachment on that freedom of action,
guaranteed to him, and his successors, by the
firman of investiture.

FRENCH V. ENGLISH INFLUENCE. 391

"During the lifetime of his grandfather, Abbas
had invariably protested against the undue in-
fluence of France ; and from the day he came
into power, he resolved on relieving his country
from so grievous an incubus. His first act was
in that sense; and after hurrying through the
form and ceremony of investiture at Constan-
tinople, he no sooner returned to Cairo than he
set to work in earnest. He commenced by dis-
missing from his service, and pensioning off, a
number of Frenchmen, and other Europeans,
who for years had enjoyed the rank and drawn
the emoluments of beys ; but the exact nature of
whose duties it was difficult to define. Amongst
his own officers there were many, holding high
rank and important posts, who had been gained
over, heart and soul to the views of France.
These he recommended ' to retire to Constanti-
nople ' ' (i.e., banished).

English influence at length prevailed, and the
road was constructed; and under the Empire,
France patronized the Suez Canal, as a political
equipoise.

History repeats itself oftener in Egypt than
elsewhere, and the old rivalry is neither dead nor
sleeping to-day, as living men may see. In
addition to the former rivalry, new ones have
been created. Until the Eusso-Turkish war
removed her representative from Cairo, Eussia

392 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

was busily agitating in Egypt, with, the assistance
of Panslavist envoys, whose correspondence has
been intercepted and published. The new king-
dom of united Italy, whose subjects almost equal
those of France, and double those of England
in Egypt, claims a consultative voice in the
councils of the Khedive in all matters of foreign
concern. Nor is there any foreign agent there
who does not aspire to have his finger in the
pie, and exert some influence at the Court to
which he is accredited — the functions of consuls-
general being purely political, except in cases of
appeal from the action of their subordinates.

Egypt seems to have been set apart by destiny
as the battle-ground of races, and so continues
still; her .native population having far less voice
in her councils, and far less of the profits
derived from their labour, than the " stranger
within their gates," of any alien race whatso-
ever. And yet, there never was a race, as
Mariette Bey has justly observed, more naturally
conservative, and less disposed to strife, than
the native Egyptian is and ever has been from
his earliest recorded history; which however
has been a history of change and of struggle
always, the tide of events sweeping Egypt, in
spite of herself, into the turbid torrent of per-
petual revolutions.

" Egypt," says the close and experienced

"LAISSEZ NOUS FAIRE.'' 393

observer of her monuments and history I have
already cited, " through her admirable climate,
which makes the mere act of living a luxury-
through the fertility of her soil — through the
gentle and docile character of her people, render-
ing the introduction of the arts of civilization
so easy — is par excellence the most conservative
of countries. Aggression, and the impulse of ex-
pansion and propagandism, so common to other
races, are unknown to her ; and did not others
come to disturb the tranquil repose which is the
essence of her life, it is very certain she, of her
own accord, would never stir to create agita-
tions elsewhere. When she has been violently
pushed into siich movements, against her natural
bent, they have proved but temporary-; and it
is always sure, whenever the final catastrophe
comes, poor Egypt must prove the loser."

" Laissez nous fair e ! " (" Let us alone ") should
be the motto, as it long has been the despairing
cry of Egypt and her rulers ; and until this
perpetual meddling and muddling in her affairs
ceases, and she is left to stand or fall alone,
without so many super-serviceable friends
pulling or pushing her in different directions, the
shadow of the stranger will continue to shut out
her sunshine from the natives of her soil 4

394 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

CHAPTER XXV.

BY CAIRO TO EUROPE, VIA ALEXANDRIA.

By rail from Cairo to Alexandria — Disturbing a hareem — The last of
backsheesh — The country en route — Two rival capitals — How an
Alexandrian feels at Cairo, and how a Cairene regards him — Some-
thing about the Egyptian Brighton — Old and New Alexandria — The
place and people — The different routes back to Europe — The Brindisi
route — Picturesque old places on the Italian coast — The Moorish
pirates— Through Italy — Bologna and its museum — La Belle France ;
and adieu to Egypt.

THE communication between Cairo and Alex-
andria is very intimate and constant, although
the residents at, or near the latter city, affect
to look down rather contemptuously on the
former, as of mushroom growth, compared to
their comparatively ancient colony, the nucleus
and nest of the foreign settlement in Egypt*
On the other hand, the Cairenes assume towards
the Alexandrians, the patronizing and pitying
demeanour, assumed by "fast" young gentle-
men, on encountering the old friends of their
parents, whom they regard as decidedly " slow,"
and ever treat with a mixture of deference and

THE RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION. 395

forbearance, which is very exasperating. This
rivalry is curious to contemplate ; and Shep-
heard's Hotel, where the English, and English-
speaking element, most do congregate, affords
daily exemplifications and illustrations of the bad
blood engendered between the commercial and
Court centres, during the present reign. Before
that time this rivalry and jealous feeling did not
exist. Mehemet Ali, his son, and grandson,
preferred Alexandria to Cairo ; and made it the
capital. Abbas shunned both cities as much as
he could, avoiding men and their haunts, that
he might enjoy his own moody humour in the
silence and solitude of his desert palaces.

The railway carriages struck me as very shabby
and dirty last year, and the general adminis-
tration of the railway, which had passed into
new and foreign hands, was thoroughly slovenly
and exasperating, involving a great waste of
comfort, time, and temper on a transit of about
five and a half hours' duration, which ought
to be four — the whole distance being but little
over 130 miles. It really seemed to me, that
this line was far worse managed, than it had
been fifteen years before; and although the
heads may now be European, the hands (and
very dirty ones) continually thrust into our
railway carriage en route, were certainly those of
Esau, not of Jacob— Egyptian, not European.

396 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

The journey may be described as a short one,
elongated by perpetual stoppages, each of which
is of considerable duration, time counting for
nothing in railway calculations on this line..
The Suez Canal has hurt the railway lines, by
diverting the great bulk of the passenger and
goods traffic, which used to be transported from
Alexandria to Cairo and Suez, under the old
overland transit route ; and the extension of the
interior irrigating canals, also takes off another
slice. The new Fresh- Water Canal to Ismailia
will cut another large " cantle " off; and this
may partially account for the general air of
decay and dilapidation, which pervaded the
entire service.

The route to Alexandria has been so often
described in the books of the Nile tourists, who
write as they run, that it would only fatigue the
reader to recapitulate the oft-told tale ; though
there are views, constantly being framed in the
carriage windows, that would make the fortune
of the painter, cunning enough to catch and put
them down on canvas. But Ismail Khedive
has spent time, money, and influence in build-
ing up, and (as he thinks) beautifying Cairo, and
has constituted it his capital and chief place of
residence — rarely visiting Alexandria, where he
also has palaces, or Kamleh, on the sea-shore
near Alexandria, whose refreshing sea breezes

THE RIVAL CAPITALS. 397

might woo him to pass the sultry Egyptian mid-
summer there.

The gossip of Alexandria whispers that a
superstitious dread keeps him away from the old
city, because it has been predicted he is to die
there ; and a belief in such predictions is rooted
in the mind of every Oriental, whatever may
have been his instruction or training : and can
never be eradicated.

Be this as it may, it is certain that he has
ever smiled on Cairo, and given the cold shoulder
to Alexandria, which resents the slight, and
professes small affection for the Khedive ; and
where, in fact, the foreign element is openly and
bitterly hostile to the existing administration ;
partly through the conviction that he has
already almost ruined the country, and them-
selves with it, and partly because of his treat-
ment of them and their beloved city.

For, unlike the Cairene resident, who is only
a transient person, as attached to the Court or
some Government bureau, the Alexandrian has a
strong feeling of nationality apart from that of
his birth, owing to long residence and long
association, stretching back to the commence-
ment of the present century. To him, there-
fore, the Cairene is but a parvenu; and
although he visits Cairo through policy, or by
business compulsion occasionally, he growls

398 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

at the city, and the Khedive, all the time he is
there.

At the grand new hotel, which is owned by the
Khedivial family, and therefore patronized by
"loyal" Levantines, yon respire the odour of
loyalty towards the Khedive, "and all that is
his;" while at the Hotel d' Orient yon may"
fancy yourself in France, and at the Hotel du
Nil in the heart of the Ehineland — except that
the tropical plants of its pretty garden could not
bloom on the banks of that renowned river.

Leaving either of these hotels, by the express
train at 8 a.m., you are conveyed in an
omnibus to the station in a cloud of dust, and in
a few minutes are deposited on the platform of
the station, in the midst of a howling but good-
tempered mob of Arabs and Levantines, of all
conceivable nationalities.

The officious conductor of the omnibus regis-
ters your luggage, (on which you are always
heavily taxed for overweight, however small
your valise may be), procures your ticket, and
enters into a violent altercation with one of the
railway officials about your seat in a carriage :
insisting that as all others are crowded, one
with the curtains drawn must be unlocked for
your accommodation. High above the clamour of
contending voices, you hear the word " hareem,"
and apprehending that you may share the fate

AN EGYPTIAN BRIGHTON. 399

of Orpheus, if you intrude on the hidden houris,
implore your officious champion to get you some
other place. Upon this he closes one eye, and
whispers mysteriously, " Backsheesh ! " You
deposit a coin in his hand ; he transfers it to the
hand of the railway official; who, utterly oblivious
of his previous statements, unlocks the door,
ushers you into the empty carriage, and allows
you the quiet enjoyment of all the seats, until
another and similar performance is gone through
on behalf of some other voyager, with similar
results.

In despite of the dust, the heat, the glare,
the flies, and the ceaseless shrieking for back-
sheesh of the dirty little imps that haunt every
station, with their goolalis of water, oranges,
and dried dates, on which the flies are ever
feasting, at every station, you feel you are
really passing through the Lotos-land, with its
wonderful varieties of verdure spread over the
map-like stretch of tableland, over which the
camel and water-ox are patiently plodding, and
the half-naked Egyptians, on donkey-back in the
foreground, make pictorial.

The first surprise awaiting the returning
traveller is at Bamleh, which, from a small
straggling sea-coast village of a hundred houses
or cabins, has now grown into a large and
densely inhabited town of many thousands of

400 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

permanent residents. There are no less than
two railway lines passing through and to it ;
and a large proportion of the foreign colony
doing business at Alexandria now live there
winter and summer, going daily into the city,
about four miles distant. Every possible
variety of architectural caprice may be seen at
Eamleh, which squatting down on the sandy
sea-shore without trees, is all open to the
view — from Khedivial palaces, built in utter
scorn of all the orders of architecture, to Swiss
chalets, square boxes, and houses of as confused
plans, as the dreams engendered of undigested
suppers.

With the slight drawbacks of the absence
of all verdure, and a blinding glare from the
white sand all day, accompanied by a corre-
sponding degree of heat (only rendered endurable
by the stiff sea breeze), the absence of a casino
or other place of public amusement, and the
impossibility of doing much visiting until after
sunset — I should suppose Eamleh might be a
pleasant summer's resort for a person with a fine
faculty for sleep. Seriously speaking, however,
the place is a real godsend to the Alexandrians,
from the healthy character of its position, and its
refreshing sea breezes ; and I am told that the
hotel of Beau Sejour there, is in every respect a
most admirable one ; while the hospitality of its

IMPROVEMENTS AT ALEXANDRIA. 401

residents would relieve any defects there, did
they exist. The views from its high bluffs, of
Alexandria and far out to sea, are very fine ; and
those who know the place and people best like
them most, which certainly is a good sign.

On entering the railway station you see the
first indications of Alexandria's improvement ;
for it would be considered a remarkably fine and
spacious one in any capital in Europe ; and
everything is admirably systematized there for
the safe and speedy transportation of passengers
and their luggage to their hotels after arrival.
As we drove through the principal streets to
the Grand Plaza, on or near which are all the
principal hotels, we remarked the great improve-
ment and growth of the city in the last twelve
years, in despite of the Khedive's small patronage
of it ; for high and solid blocks of stone build-
ings now occupy the spaces formerly void, or
boasting only of small and shaky-looking houses,
from the Eossetta gate down to the streets
leading into the plaza. Around this plaza also
improvement had manifested itself, in the shape
of still larger and handsomer blocks of stone
buildings, many of which are worthy of London
or Paris. There was now a general air of fresh-
ness and bustle about the place, contrasting
strongly with the drowsy aspect borne by place
and people in the days when Sai'd Pacha was

2D

402 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

viceroy, and laid out and planted the open space
in the centre : now filled with trees and foun-
tains, and whence old Mehemet Ali in bronze,
seated on horseback, looks down paternally, yet
grimly, on his favourite city.

For more than thirty years past Alexandria
has been substantially an European, not an
Eastern city ; the only Oriental features it pos-
sesses being its bazaars, which are by no means
fair average specimens of the article, and a popu-
lation about half Arab, comprising chiefly the
labouring and small shopkeeping class. So that
Alexandria, like Smyrna and many other cities
of the Levant, disappoints the traveller freshly
arriving in the East, from looking so European
— resembling rather an Italian than an Eastern
town. Yet there is a great deal to be seen, and
more to be learned about the land and people of
Egypt from old residents there, than the mere
casual visitor would suppose. The evidences
of capital in the buildings — chiefly owned by
Europeans — and of wealth displayed in the
houses and shops, are very striking ; and
although for a succession of years, since the
overtrading and high prices consequent on the
American war, business pressure and bad times
have prevailed there, and the merchants are
gloomy as to their future, the place looks
thriving and prosperous.

THE TRADE OF ALEXANDRIA. 403

I do not doubt that, as Sai'd Pacha predicted,
the Suez Canal has injured Alexandria, by
depriving it of the old transit profits, as much of
Egyptian produce now passes out via Port Said.
Yet the statistics show that Alexandria is still
a busy port, and the costly improvements now
making in her harbour may cause her to regain
more than her lost ground, when completed.

Alexandria, representing as it does most of the
foreign trade of Egypt, yet does not embrace
more than three-fifths of the entire movement
from the Egyptian ports.

This arises from the navigation from the other
ports, chiefly from Port Sa'id and Suez for direct
transit, and from Damietta, Rosetta, and the Red
Sea ports, which have the local traffic. Accord-
ing to the Statistique de VEgypte, during the ten
years intervening between 1863 and 1872 the
number of vessels of all kinds entering the port
of Alexandria amounted to 32,433, giving an
annual mean of 3*243, each of 390 tons. This
number was an increase of more than a thousand
vessels over the preceding decade, and chiefly in
respect to steamers ; a tendency which the Suez
Canal, and the improvement of the port of
Alexandria, will cause to manifest itself more
strikingly still. The most remarkable feature
with regard to the commercial movement to and
from Alexandria, is found in the fact that the

404 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

exports double the imports : which under sound
principles of political economy, under a proper
administration, ought to render Egypt the most
prosperous country on the' face of the earth.

There are two short routes, and several longer
ones, via Malta and Gibraltar to Liverpool ; but
the two favourite ones are via Brindisi, and by
French Messageries to Marseilles. The screw
steamers taking from twelve to fourteen days to
Liverpool, are said to be very fair, and " werry
fillin' at the price " —as Sam Weller says. From
personal experience, I can speak of the other
two lines, and can recommend both to those
who wish to travel fast, and avoid long sea
passages.

From Alexandria to Brindisi by P. and 0.
steamer takes but three days; from Egypt to
Marseilles by Messageries takes six days — giving
two days' advantage on the trip to Paris by the
former line, though a longer land travel by rail.

Leaving Brindisi, if lucky enough to travel by
daylight, the traveller sees some curious scenery
and very odd-looking old places, as he is whirled
rapidly past the coast line, often in full view
of the sea. Sitting in your railway carriage,
there passes before you a series of panoramic
pictures of crumbling mediaeval old towns, each
of which has its little history of the days when
the Moorish cruisers used to descend on these

PICTURESQUE ITALIAN TOWNS. 405

coasts, harry the towns, and take away the men
and women into captivity. Most of these places
have a tower set upon a high hill, to which the
people used to run for safety when the pirates
came ; and many have attempts at fortifications.
They look more picturesque than pleasant as
places of residence, and have a most decayed
and mouldy look, even when viewed from a
distance. They must appear terribly tumble-
down old places on a near approach, for even
distance could not lend enchantment to the
view of them. The people looked half fisher-
men, half pirate, with a strong dash of the
beggar; and both places and people bore the
stamp of poverty and neglect.

At Ancona and Bologna the traveller may
sometimes stop for a few hours, and both will
well repay a longer visit ; the places being very
quaint and curious, and the art treasures and
antiquities of the museum at Bologna being
exceptionally good and numerous. It was here
the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti, so celebrated
for his gift of tongues, presided, lived, and died ;
mastering more languages than any one man (or
even woman) could possibly ever have use for.
The old city is so very attractive to strangers
that, like a mousetrap, once in it is very hard to
get out of.

By the Brindisi route you also pass through

406 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

Turin, and that wonderful triumph of man over
mountains, the Mont Cenis Tunnel; emerging
from which again into bright sunshine and open
air, after being half choked and stone blind in
its gloomy passages, is like being born over
again : adding a new and fresh charm to the
beauties of nature unappreciated before.

At Modane, on the frontier line of France and
Italy, the Custom-house nuisance again awaits
the voyager — a troublesome and useless farce in
most instances, and one which the civilization of
the nineteenth century should mitigate, if it
cannot (as it ought) entirely do away with it.
Here you often see the mountain tops and sides,
a rugged range, covered with snow ; and then,
after a tedious ride through wild but uninterest-
ing country, with the worst food at the railway
stations that ever tried the teeth, the digestion,
and the temper of hungry travellers, you de-
scend into the smiling plains and vine-covered
fields of La Belle France — more lovely still by
contrast with rugged, impoverished-looking Italy;
whose most uninviting side you see during this
twenty-four hours' railway travel.

Before descending, however, you feel that
your Oriental dream-life is finished, and that
you are returning to matter-of-fact places and
people, and less sunny skies again. Before
reaching the dividing line between Italy and

"LA BELLE FRANCE." 407

France, the broken character of the country,
whose chief product seems to consist of rugged
stones of various sizes, piled up in some places
into high peaks whose crests never seem to doff
their white nightcaps, and keen breezes that cut
you like a knife, as you stand in a bare un-
furnished room, where Custom-house officials
search your luggage for tobacco or brandy, cause
you to sigh at the memory of the sunny skies
and soft breezes of old Egypt. As you rush
more comfortably through France, the souvenir
of Egypt is more pleasantly revived by the
softer climate and serener skies ; though the
monotonous sameness of the scenery wearies both
eye and mind. The same long flat stretches of
field and wood, bordered with the prim rows of
straight poplar; the same quaint old-fashioned
towns and villages, looking precisely alike ; the
same ever-recurring types of population, plainly
distinguishable each by its peculiar dress, as
soldier or priest, bourgeois or countryman — offer
little to excite or amuse the traveller, whirled
by express through La Belle France, until he
reaches Paris, the only city in the world where
every human being feels himself at home.

As far behind us now in thought and feeling
(though but a week has elapsed since we left her
hospitable shores), as if centuries and the whole
globe divided us, must Egypt now be to the

408 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

returned pilgrim of our widely different civiliza-
tion ; but the memory of the land and of the
people, like the suhtle perfume which still scents
the mummy-cloth after thousands of years, lingers
and must ever abide with those, who have visited
and dwelt in the " Old House of Bondage."

( 409 )

EGYPT'S FUTUKE.

FEOM the foregoing pages the reader will have
been able to form an idea of what the new
masters of the " Old House of Bondage " have
done, as well as what they have left undone, for
the country and people under their charge for
three-quarters of a century.

As to the Khedive himself, who certainly has
not come out " like refined gold " from the
furnace into which his own short-sightedness
and improvidence have cast him, his trials have
brought to light the weakest, as well as the
worst points of his character, viz., his egotism,
his want of good faith, his vindictiveness, and
his necessity of always leaning on some stronger
will than his own for support.

He struck away his prop when he sent away
Nubar Pacha, and since this removal has shown
pitiable vacillation in his policy — if we may
dignify by such a name the series of shifting
expedients by which, before and since the re-

410 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

moval and death of the Mouffetich, he has sought
to regain some of his lost prestige in foreign eyes.
As he has virtually abdicated the absolute
power, wielded so fatally for his people, in despite
of the progress the country has made, we may
now consider the Egyptian problem, irrespective
of the personality, that so long overshadowed all
else, and which has induced me to give the title
to this book ; for under the present reign it has
been

" THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT,"

and nothing else !

Proprietor, in his own name and that of his
family, of one-fifth of the best land in Egypt,
the sweat and blood of the fellahs has fertilized
it ; and even great public works have been made
and used, solely to increase the wealth and
pamper the luxury of the Khedive and his
household ; until even the much-enduring fellah
now murmurs in revolt, and curses his task-
master.

What Egypt needs, in my humble judgment,
to redeem and regenerate her, may be briefly
summed up in a few sentences, as follows : —

1st. Separation from Turkey, assigning the
tribute to the creditors to whom it has been
pledged, until that liability is liquidated; the
privilege of regulating her own internal affairs,
and pursuing the march of progress, under the

EGYPT'S FUTURE. 411

direction of her own most enlightened sons,
aided by foreign counsel. The Khedive might
still act as titular head of the State, but as a
constitutional ruler, shorn of absolute power.

2nd. The substitution of legality, and of the
judgment of tribunals, for the arbitrary will of
one man; following up the precedent which
the Khedive has unwillingly established in his
judicial and financial reforms ; making those
general and of universal application, which are
now limited and restricted. So that the reign
of Law may really be established in fact, as well
as in name, throughout Egypt.

3rd. Publicity and responsibility in all matters
appertaining to the different administrations : as
well as in the discussions and recommendations
of the body of Notables from the provinces
(termed a Parliament), now sitting in secret
session only, with an increase of their powers
and responsibilities.

4th. Eeduction and restriction of royal or
public expenditures, and of the civil list, within
reasonable limits : as well as of the building and
improvement manias : and adjustment of the
public machinery, in fit proportion to the work
it has to do.*

5th. A more just and equitable system of

* No fitter and better heads for this duty could be found than the
present commissioners, Mr. Romaine and Baron de Malaret.

412 THE KHEDIVE'S EGYPT.

taxation, administered or supervised by honest,
educated, and responsible officials, and the abo-
lition of all extraordinary impositions or forced
loans, under any name or pretext whatsoever.
Such new system of taxation to be devised and
apportioned by the Assembly of Notables, who
understand the country and the whole subject.

6th. The elevation of the fellaheen, by edu-
cation and governmental aid, to a standard of
equality, both in physical condition and political
rights, with the labouring class of civilized
countries ; and the abolition of the corvee, and
all forced labour, except in cases of absolute
public necessity, in which latter case its objec-
tionable features also should be amended.

7th. The gradual, if not immediate, abolition
of slavery in Egypt ; all the easier because only
domestic slavery exists there, and is half abo-
lished already. With its removal many of the
social evils existing there would be amelio-
rated, the condition of woman changed, and her
gilded slavery also approach its end.

Of course, in the present condition of the
country, the initiatory steps in such reforms
would have to be taken under foreign tutelage ;
but there is already a small educated class of
natives, and so quick-witted a race as the
Egyptian, can soon be taught sufficient to take
at least a part in self-government.

EGYPT'S FUTURE. 413

These are not the dreams of a visionary, nor
would the difficulties of putting such reforms
into execution be half so great, as most people
might imagine ; owing to the gentle and docile
character of the race, whom centuries of cruelty
and oppression have failed to lower or deprave.

Let us not, then, while giving the Khedive
his due for such good as he may have accom-
plished, do injustice to the instruments through
which he has achieved it. Let us not, to use
the language of a famous writer on another
occasion, " while admiring the plumage, forget
the dying bird."

The same external pressure which has already
compelled the Khedive to relax his death-grip
on the finances of the country, and partially to
submit himself to the rule of law, as embodied
in the mixed tribunals, might, in the great
interests of humanity, compel the concessions
shadowed forth above, and the liberation of an
entire people from oppression. Then, but not
until then, will the " Old House of Bondage'*
no longer deserve the name, which has clung
to it from times older than tradition : and has
unhappily continued to be a just appellation,
whether its taskmasters called themselves
Pharaohs, or Khedives.

( 415 )

APPENDIX A.

CONCESSION AND ALLEGED COST OF SUEZ
CANAL TO EGYPT.
No. 1.

The concession for the Suez Canal Company was obtained
by M. de Lesseps in 1854, and in December and January,
1854-55, the preliminary surveys were made on the present
line, about ninety-eight miles in length.

In November, 1855, an International Commission visited
the isthmus, and their report was published in June, 1856.
But the scheme dragged heavily for two years more ; and it
was not until 1858 that the Suez Ship Canal Company, under
the name of La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de
Suez, was organized, and not until March, 1859, that what
were termed "preparatory explorations" were commenced,
against which the viceroy issued his circular, prohibiting the
commencement of the work before the consent of the Sub-
lime Porte, which was a condition precedent, had been
obtained.

From that period to 1869, when it was completed and in-
augurated with great pomp and ceremony, the work went on,
but with frequent interruptions arising from political and
financial considerations, all of which, with the potent aid
of Napoleon III., were finally overcome ; the viceroy who
granted, and his successor who confirmed the concession,
having paid from first to last not less than £9,000,000 in
cash, swollen by interest and other incidentals to £15,000,000
or £16,000,000.

The entire length of the canal is little short of 100 miles ;
300 feet wide on top from one bank to the other, about 150

416 APPENDIX.

feet at the bottom, with an average depth of 24 feet. It con-
nects four natural lakes — Mengaleh, Ballah, Timsah, and the
Bitter Lakes — which had to be deepened to the requisite
depth.

Two enormous jetties, one of 2700, the other of 2000 yards,
with the distance of 1300 feet between their respective ends,
constitute the protection of the canal against the choking
up by the Mediterranean, and for protection of the shipping
seeking transit through the canal, by the formation of a basin
of 500 acres in extent, completely sheltered from storms.

The cuttings at El Guise, south of Kantara, are very
heavy, extending five miles to Lake Ballah. Twenty-five vast
steam dredges, and a large force of labourers, were employed
on this work, and at some places the perpendicular depth
excavated is upwards of 100 feet. The plateau on which El
Guise stands is the most elevated point on the canal, and the
labour of 20,000 fellahs for two years was required to cut
a channel deep enough to float the steam dredges from the
Mediterranean, and in filling the shallow basin of Timsah.

The Fresh- Water Canal from the Damietta branch of the
Nile, originally extending to Zazazig, 50 miles west of Ismailia,
has been extended eastwards to a point two or three miles
west of Ismailia — then a part of the desert — and was of essen-
tial advantage in the construction of the canal, by furnishing
the fresh water (which previously tasked several thousands of
camels and donkeys to convey from Cairo) for the labourers
engaged on the work. It is 26 feet wide, and about four feet
deep. The Sweet- Water Canal now connects Ismailia and
Cairo.

The northern end of the Bitter Lakes is ten miles from
Port Said. The lakes themselves are about 24 miles long.

The cuttings at Toussoum and Serepeum, between Lake
Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, next to those at El Guise, are
the deepest and heaviest on the canal.

In October, 1867, the first steamer navigated as far as Is-
mailia from Port Said, as the pioneer of the fleet that within
two years' time was to pass entirely through to Suez.

The Egyptian Government has gone to great expense in

APPENDIX. 417

constructing piers, docks, and basins at Suez, which must be
added to the cost of its concession above stated.

Here is the Government estimate of the actual cost to
Egypt of the Suez Canal, including interest and incidental
expenses connected with the enterprise : —

COST TO EGYPT OF SUEZ CANAL.

Shares taken in the company by H. H. Said Pasha ... £3,544,120

Award of Emperor Napoleon to compromise concession of

forced labour ... ... ... ... ... 2,960,000

Paid to Canal Company for land and buildings near Cairo,

called Cheflik-el-Wady ... ... ... ... 400,000

Paid to Canal Company to cancel concession of land on two

sides of canal, as per contract, 23rd April, 1869 ... 1,200, 000

Paid to Canal Company for works executed 011 Sweet-Water
Canal, and as compensation for relinquishing company's
claim to that canal ... ... 400,000

Cost of works executed by Government in cutting Sweet-
Water canal ... ... ... ... ... 428,927

Paid to French contractors for completion of Sweet-Water

Canal by contract ... ... ... ... 815,833

Expenses of various missions to Europe and Constantinople
in connection with canal, and expenses in opening the
canal ... ... ... ... ... 1,011,193

£10,760,073

Interest paid on above sums from respective dates to Sep-
tember, 1873 6,663,105

£17,423,178
No 2.

THE receipts of the Canal of Suez for the first quarter, for
four successive years, have been as follows : —

Francs.
1874, receipts for first quarter 6,744,000

1875 „ % „ 8,212,000

1876 „ „ 8,344,000

1877 „ „ 9,071,000

The following figures, derived from authentic sources, will
show the traffic : —

Number of vessels passing through. Tons measurement.

In 1875 1411 1,908,970

In 1876 1395 1,986,698

2 E

418 APPENDIX.

Tons.

Of these, the English vessels amounted to 1,510,198
French 135,345

Holland
Italy
Austria
Russia

101,031
60,998
27,281
16,627

Thus, out of about 2,000,000 tonnage per annum, the pro-
portions are —

English, a little more than . . 1,500,000 tons.
All other nations, a little less than 500,000 tons.

England thus contributing three-fourths of the entire tonnage.

APPENDIX B.

THE SUEZ CANAL AND THE ENGLISH
GOVERNMENT.

The following correspondence with regard to the Suez
Canal has been printed : —

No. 1.
" The Earl of Derby to Lord Lyons.

"Foreign Office, May 16.

" My Lord, — M. de Lesseps called upon me at the Foreign
Office on the 10th inst., having, as he stated, come expressly
from Paris to lay before Her Majesty's Government a project
for regulating the passage of ships of war through the Suez
Canal.

" I received him in company with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and he handed to me the draft project of which
I enclose a copy.

" After some conversation, I told him that the question of
the position of the Suez Canal under present circumstances
was a difficult and delicate one, and that I could not then

APPENDIX. 419

say more than that the project which he had been good
enough to submit to me should have full consideration.

" Her Majesty's Government have since carefully considered
the project, and have come to the conclusion that the scheme
proposed in it for the neutralization of the Canal by an
International Convention is open to so many objections of a
political and practical character that they could not under-
take to recommend it for the acceptance of the Porte and the
Powers.

"Her Majesty's Government are, at the same time, deeply
sensible of the importance to Great Britain and other neutral
Powers of preventing the Canal being injured or blocked up
by either of the belligerents in the present war, and your
Excellency is at liberty to inform M. de Lesseps that Her
Majesty's Government has intimated to the Russian Ambas-
sador that an attempt to blockade or otherwise to interfere
with the Canal or its approaches would be regarded by Her
Majesty's Government as a menace to India, and as a grave
injury to the commerce of the world. I added that on both
those grounds any such step — which Her Majesty's Govern-
ment hope and fully believe there is no intention on the part
of either belligerent to take — would be incompatible with the
maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an attitude of
passive neutrality.

" Her Majesty's Government will cause the Porte and the
Khedive to be made acquainted with the intimation thus
conveyed to the Russian Government, and Her Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople and Agent in Egypt will be
instructed to state that Her Majesty's Government will expect
that the Porte and the Khedive will on their side abstain
from impeding the navigation of the Canal, or adopting any
measures likely to injure the Canal or its approaches, and
that Her Majesty's Government are firmly determined not to
permit the Canal to be made the scene of any combat or other
warlike operations.

"In stating this to M. de Lesseps, your Excellency will
explain that Her Majesty's Government have thus taken the
initiative in regard to the protection of the Canal on account

420 APPENDIX.

of the pressing' necessity, as regards British interests, of
maintaining the security of the Canal, and they do not doubt
that if the Canal were to be seriously menaced, the French
and other Governments would adopt a similar course.

" I am, etc.,

(Signed) " DERBY."

Inclosure 1 in No. 1 .
" Memorandum by M. de Lesseps.

" The very clear declaration made by the English Govern-
ment to the two Houses of Parliament of its resolution to
maintain the freedom of the passage of the Suez Canal for
its men-of-war has led me to believe that there might now
be an opportunity of concluding an agreement with other
Governments on this subject.

" As president of the financial company with which England
is connected, I submit to Lord Derby a project simply ex-
pressing my personal views, which I have reason to believe
the Due Decazes would be disposed to adhere to after a
private conversation which I had with him yesterday morning.

" Should the British Minister not think it well to initiate
negotiations with the other Cabinets, I would make, at Paris,
to the representatives of the several Powers interested, the
overtures which I have made to Lord Derby and the Due
Decazes.

(Signed) "FEED. DE LESSEPS.

"London, May 10, 1877."

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

"International Agreement as to passage of Ships of War

through the Suez Canal."

" Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 the complete
liberty of passage through the Maritime Canal and the ports
connected with it has been respected for State vessels as well

APPENDIX. 421

as for merchant ships, even on the part of belligerent Powers
at the time of the Franco- German War.

" The Governments of now agree to maintain the

same liberty to all national or commercial vessels, whatever
may be their flag and without any exception, it being under-
stood that national ships will be subject to the measures which
the territorial authority may take to prevent ships in transit
from disembarking on Egyptian territory any troops or muni-
tions of war."

No. 2.
" The Earl of Derby to Mr. Layard.*

" Foreign Office, May 15.

" Sir, — I transmit to your Excellency herewith a copy of a
despatch which I have addressed to Her Majesty's Ambassa-
dor at Paris, respecting a project, of which a copy is also
inclosed, communicated to me by M. de Lesseps, for the
neutralization of Suez Canal.

" Your Excellency will see that Her Majesty's Government
have declined to adopt that project, but have informed M. de
Lesseps of the intimation made by Her Majesty's Government
to the Russian Ambassador that an attempt to blockade or
otherwise to interfere with the Canal or its approaches would
be regarded by Her Government as a menace to India, and
as a grave injury to the commerce of the world, and that on
both these grounds any such step — which Her Majesty's
Government hope and fully believe there is no intention on
the part of either belligerent to take — would be incompatible
with the maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an
attitude of passive neutrality.

" I have to request your Excellency to acquaint the Porte
with the intimation thus conveyed to the Russian Govern-
ment, and to state that Her Majesty's Government will expect
that the Porte and the Khedive will on their side abstain

* A similar despatch was addressed to Mr. Vivian.

422 APPENDIX.

from impeding the navigation of the Canal, or adopting any
measures likely to injure the Canal or its approaches, and
that Her Majesty's Government are firmly determined not to
permit the Canal to be made the scene of any combat or other
warlike operations.

"I have addressed a similar despatch to Her Majesty's
Agent and Consul- General in Egypt.

" I am, etc.,

(Signed) " DERBY."

APPENDIX C.

THE MIXED TRIBUNALS.

No. 1.

ROCKS AHEAD — SALARIES AND CONFLICTS OF JURISDICTION.

Lest I may be suspected or accused of captiousness or
injustice in the remarks which I have felt bound to make
in several places on two points of great public interest,
viz., the extravagance of salaries paid some of the Euro-
pean employes, and the difficulties of the new tribunals in
steering between Scylla (the foreign element) on the one
side, and Charybdis (in the person of the Khedive) on the
other, I cite the testimony of two witnesses upon the spot :
one of whom is understood to be a gentleman holding a high
official position on the new tribunals, and the other the
English correspondent of a leading London journal. Such
testimony must be regarded as unimpeachable, and it fully
confirms my own on both points. From the letter of the
Times' correspondent, under date of January 1st, 1877, I
quote but a small portion of his comments on this topic.
Speaking of the Khedive's economies, he says : —

"There is a further impediment, and a serious one, to the
introduction of real economy in the matter of the salaries of
the Egyptian Civil Service, Many of the higher posts are

APPENDIX. 423

now filled by Europeans. In order to invite men of capacity
and position in their own country, large sums have been
offered as an inducement to come to Egypt, and contracts
have been made, which insure the payment of such sums for
a certain number of years. The new Controllers- General of
Taxation, for instance, are paid as highly as the President of
the United States or a Baron of the Exchequer. Even their
deputies are to receive £2500 a year, while £3000 a year
is not an uncommon salary to Europeans in other branches
of the service. There is yet another obstacle to economy.
International jealousy is strong in Egypt, and consequently
two or three men must be named to ivhat is only the work of one,
in order that each nationality should have its proper influence
in the country. Thus an Englishman and a Frenchman must
attend to the taxation ; two Englishmen and one Frenchman
control the railways ; an Englishman, a Frenchman, an Italian,
and an Austrian attend to the public debt ; and as many as
twelve nationalities are represented on the judicial bench,
which, however, is not paid on the scale of more recent
appointments. Of course all this European talent is very
highly paid, and the rate of these salaries to foreigners makes
economy in the payment of the native functionaries a most
invidious task."

The special correspondent of the Daily News, writing from
Alexandria, February 19th, 1877, thus shows the "rocks
ahead " of the judicial tribunals : —

" The position of the new tribunals has from the outset
been one requiring great tact and delicacy, in order to avoid
the extremes of manifesting too little independence, and so
losing the confidence of the treaty Powers, on the one hand,
and displaying too much, and thus bringing themselves into
collision with the Khedive, on the other. How far these
dangers have been avoided hitherto may be a matter of
opinion, but anyhow the courts have passed through the
first year of their existence, which is something to boast
of. At the present moment, however, there are complica-
tions impending which can hardly fail to land them either
on one horn or the other of a dilemma from which apparently
there is no escape. The immediate source of trouble is a
M. Brocard, formerly contractor for the Fresh-Water Canal
at Ismailia, who, within the past week, succeeded in inducing
the Cairo tribunal to award him £50,000 from the Govern-
ment. Of course he failed to obtain payment, and in default

-124 APPENDIX.

he proceeded to levy execution upon the Mallieh, or Treasury,
where, as might from past experience have been anticipated,
the officer of the court was resisted, and had to withdraw.
. . . It is morally certain that the Government, having regard
to the hundreds of similar cases pending, can never allow
the sentence to be enforced, and the only dignified course then
open to the judges will be to perform the process known as the
" happy despatch" and so close their own careers and that
of the Beforme Judiciare at the same time. Even supposing
them to be willing to remain in office, and continue to act the
part of mere lay figures in a judicial farce, the end would
probably be none the less near or certain, for it must be re-
membered that M. Brocard, the plaintiff in question, is a
French subject, and that France is one of the two Powers
which refused to bind themselves to the Reforme Judiciare for
any definite time. She can, therefore, and doubtless will, at
any period, withdraw from the convention upon finding that
the interests of her citizens are not protected under it ; and
were France to abandon the new system, Russia, which is
similarly situated with regard to her obligations, ivould probably
follow. With the secession of these two important Powers,
the integrity of the Reforme Judicaire would be for ever
destroyed — it would become practically unworkable, and its
entire collapse must inevitably follow."

No. 2.

INTERNATIONAL RIVALRIES.

From a letter addressed to the Times from Alexandria, under
date of May 27th of the present year, and supposed to emanate
from a source worthy of credence, the following frank expo-
sition of the internal dissensions and jealousies of the different
constituent members of the new International Tribunal is
taken. It gives a lively picture of the difficulties attendant
on the creation and preservation of harmony or the merging
of private piques and rivalries into the common interest, as
well as the existing anomalies in the constitution of the
tribunals.

"Mention has often been made of the international rivalry
which goes on in Egypt. The French always strive to have
more influence than the English with the Government, and
the Italians and the Greeks enter into the same competition,
though with less success ; a struggle for predominance which

APPENDIX. 425

has produced needless expense of administration, as the ap-
pointment of an Englishman or Frenchman has more than
once led to the successful application from, another nationality
to have a similar nominee. In the new judicial body this
international rivalry was appeased by a promise from Egypt
that each of the seven Great Powers should have a nominee
in the Court of Appeal, a second in the Court of First
Instance, and a third in the Parquet, or Department of Jus-
tice. France, however, just recently has managed to obtain
a small triumph by an ingenious evasion of this principle of
equality of representation. The members of the Parquet were
found of little use on account of the absence of criminal
jurisdiction. Their only practical utility was as public prose-
cutors, and for that duty there is at present no demand. It
was, therefore, proposed to the Powers to transfer these
gentlemen to the Bench, where there is a want of power to
meet the heavy and increasing demands for credit justice.
All the Powers assented save France, who preferred, she said,
to retain her nominee in the Parquet. Only six new judges
were, therefore, secured. Then the French member of the
Parquet complained of the inequality of his position vis a vis
his recent colleagues. To satisfy him the post of Avocat-
General was created, and he now fills that office with an
increase of pay. But this by no means contented the French
party. They next protested against the infringement of the
principle of equality of representation in the International
Tribunal produced by the fact that all the Great Powers save
France (and America, who never sent a member to the Par-
quet) had nominated two Judges of First Instance. The
argument was found irresistible by Egypt, and a second
French Judge of First Instance has been appointed. M.
Bellet, Avocat- General of the Court of Appeal of Toulouse,
a man of high reputation and long experience, arrived here
last week, and takes his seat at once on the Alexandria Bench,
where there is an appalling list of arrears. The system and
languages are at present purely continental, and this increase
of the French element introduces the best working power.
But there is a point which should not be lost sight of by

426 APPENDIX.

England. At the end of the first five years the whole system
of the International Tribunals is to be subjected to revision,
and the representatives of the large British interests in Egypt
hope that certain changes may be made in favour of the
English method of dealing with questions of fact. The Anglo-
Egyptians complain with reason that English law and English
procedure should not have been wholly set aside in presence of the
fact that two-thirds of the ivhole commerce of the country are
English. But if a reform of the codes were seriously con-
templated, the English and American element in the courts
wonld be of increased utility, and a predominant French party
would only lead to difficulty."

APPENDIX D.

POPULATION OF THE FOREIGN COLONY.

No. 1.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to give an accurate state-
ment as to the exact number and nationality of the foreign
colony in Egypt. The consular registers are necessarily
imperfect, in consequence not only of the neglect of persons
to register their names and those of their families, but, in
addition to the large floating class, agents of foreign houses
scattered throughout the villages render the task more per-
plexing.

I subjoin a statement taken from the consular registers,
showing only approximately the numbers and nationality of
strangers resident in Egypt, which the Khedive himself esti-
mates at about 100,000.

Greeks (not rayahs, or subjects of the Porte) ... 34,000

Italians ... ... ... ... 15,000

Frenchmen and French subjects ... ... 17,000

Englishmen and Maltese ... ... ... 6,000

Austrians and Hungarians ... ... ... 6,500

Germans ... ... ... ... 1,100

All other nationalities ... 1,390

APPENDIX.

427

Of Americans there are very few; a dozen missionaries,
about 20 army officers, three judges of the mixed tribunals,
and a small number of citizens. The number of American
visitors annually is very great : larger than that of any other
nationality except England.

No. 2.

Translated from the Statistique de VEgypte, published by
order of Government at Cairo, 1873 : —

No. 10.— FOREIGN SUBJECTS OF VARIOUS NATIONALITIES,
RESIDING IN EGYPT.

Residences.

1

4

^

1

a

1

I

1

•

j

l|j

Total.

O

1

I

1

8

O

i
I

I

1

«

1

l|l

1

|

ALEXANDRIA

CAIRO (suburbs

21,000

7,539

10,000

4,500

3,000

600

100

150

127

220 40 40

47,316

inclusive)

7,000

3,367

5,000

1,000 [1,800

450

400

103

OTHER LOCALITIES

19.120

(Principally Isth-

mus of Suez

and Delta)

6,000

3,000

2,000 | 500

1,500 1 50

210

13,260

Total . . .

34,000

13,906

17,000 6,000

6,300 1,100

1,390

79,696

NOTE. — These figures have been taken by the respective consulates in
1870-72 from the registrations of each nationality, which at Alexan-
dria represent about half the real number, or number supposed to be
correct. For the Italian colony alone, the results of a recent and rather
complete census, taken in 1871-72, has been used, but from this, no doubt,
a certain number of residents have been omitted. The general total,
79,696, includes about 800 Swiss under the protection of various foreign
Powers ; it does not apply to the floating or travelling population, but
only to residents*

428 APPENDIX.

APPENDIX E.
FIRMAN CHANGING SUCCESSION.

The firman of the Sultan changing the Egyptian succes-
sion was issued on 13 Rabi-ul Akhir 1290 of the Hegira —
equivalent to 9th June, 1873. In this firman it is declared
that " The Khedivate of Egypt passes to the eldest son of the
person who shall find himself clothed with the dignity of
the Khedive, or from him to his eldest son, and so on ; that
is to say, that the succession is established exclusively by
order of primogeniture, as we are persuaded will be conform-
able to the interests and good administration of the Khedivate
and the welfare of its people. In case the Khedive shall die
without male issue, the Khedivate will pass to his younger
brother, or, if need be, to the elder son of his younger brother."
Provision is made in detail for a regency in case of the
minority of the heir presumptive, eighteen years being con-
sidered full age. This firman further recognizes the unlimited
authority of the Khedive to make internal laws and regula-
tions for the government of Egypt, and his right to bestow
military grades as high as colonel, and civil grades as high
as bey. Higher grades must be issued from Constantinople
at his request. This firman, enlarging previous powers granted
to Egyptian viceroys, authorizes the Khedive contract to
loans without permission asked of the Sultan ; to enter into
commercial or other treaties with foreign Powers, provided
such arrangements are not inconsistent with the political
treaties of the Sublime Porte ; and also empowers him to
increase his army and navy, as he sees fit, with the exception
of ironclads, which are forbidden.

The annual tribute to Constantinople is fixed at 150,000
purses in gold, equivalent to about £680,000, concerning
which the Sublime Porte thus feelingly and forcibly speaks :
" Thou shalt also pay the greatest attention to remit each year
without delay, and in its entirety, to my Imperial Treasury
the 150,000 purses of tribute established, as fixed by the
firman of 1866 " — the firman elevating the viceroy to the
dignity of Khedive.

APPENDIX. 429

APPENDIX F.

EGYPTIAN EXPLORATION OF CENTRAL AFRICA.

I am indebted to General Stone, Chief of Staff, for the
following report, submitted by him to the Khedive last
autumn, giving the results of staff and other Egyptian ex-
plorations in Central Africa : —

War Office, Bureau of the General Staff,
(Cabinet of the Chief.) Cairo, 16th October, 1876.

Summary of geographical and scientific results accomplished
by expeditions made by the Government of the Khedive
of Egypt during the three years 1874-5-6 : —

1. Accurate reconnaissance of the White Nile, from Gondo-
koro to Lake Albert. — Gordon, assisted by Watson, Chippen-
dall, and Gessi.

2. Reconnaissance of the White Nile between Khartoum
and Gondokoro, with greater exactitude than had ever before
been accomplished, with the determination of five positions
by means of astronomical observations. — Watson and Chip-
pendall, under the orders of Colonel Gordon.

3. Observations of the transit of Venus, Dec., 1874. By
Watson and Chippendall, under the orders of Colonel Gordon,
at Rageef, near Gondokoro.

4. Reconnaissance of Lake Albert, 1876. By Gessi, under
the orders of General Gordon.

5. Establishment of steam navigation upon Lake Albert.
By General Gordon.

6. Verification of the course of the Nile between Lake
Victoria and M'rooli, and the discovery of Lake Ibrahim. By
Lieut.-Colonel Long, under the orders of Colonel Gordon.

7. Verification of the course of the Nile between the falls
of Kamma and Lake Albert. By Linant, Gessi, and Piaggia,
under the orders of General Gordon.

8. Discovery of the branch flowing from the Nile near
Lake Albert towards the north-west. By Gessi, under the
orders of General Gordon.

430 APPENDIX.

9. Discovery of the branch flowing from Lake Ibrahim in
a northerly direction. By Piaggia, under the orders of General
Gordon.

10. The accurate reconnaissance of the Nile between
Foweira and M'rooli. By General Gordon.

11. Reconnaissance of the country between the White Nile,
near Gondokoro, and the Makiaka-Niam-Niam country. By
Colonel Long, assisted by Maino, under the orders of General
Gordon.

12. Reconnaissance and completion of the map of the route
between Debbe and Matoiil, and between Debbe and Obeiyail.
By Colonel Colston, assisted by five officers of the Egyptian
staff.

Report upon the northern portion of the province of Kor-
dofan. — Colonel Colston.

13. General reconnaissance of the province of Kordofan,
and completion of the map to the 12th degree of north lati-
tude. By Major Prout, assisted by five officers of the Egyptian
staff. Lines of reconnaissance traversed, about 6000 kilo-
metres ; seventeen positions determined astronomically.

General report upon the said province. By Major Prout.

14. Botanical reconnaissance (with large collections of
plants) of the province of Kordofan. By Doctor Pfund, under
the orders of Colonel Colston and Major Prout.

15. Botanical reconnaissance (with collections of plants)
of the central portion of the province of Darfour. By Doctor
Pfund, under the orders of Colonel Purdy.

16. Reconnaissance of the route between Dongola upon the
Nile and El Facher, the capital of Darfour. By Colonel Purdy
assisted by Lieut.-Colonel Mason and five other officers of the
Egyptian staff.

17. General reconnaissance of the entire country of Darfour,
and a portion of the Dar Fertit, as far as Hofrat el Nahass
and Shekka to the south, as far as Gebel Medob to the north,
and as far as the frontier of Wadai to the west, with the
completion of the map and general report upon the country.
By Colonel Purdy, assisted by Lieut.-Colonel Mason, Major
Prout, and nine other officers of the Egyptian staff. Distance

APPENDIX. 431

traversed, over 6500 kilometres ; twenty- two positions deter-
mined astronomically.

18. Geological and mineralogical reconnaissance of the
country between Rudesieh and Kinneh npon the Nile, and the
Bed Sea near Cosire, with a geological map and profile, and
report. By Mr. Mitchell, assisted by an officer of the staff
and Emiliano, with large collections of specimens.

19. Topographical and geological reconnaissance of the
country to the sonth-west of Zeylah and near Tajurra. By Mr.
Mitchell, assisted by an officer of the staff and Emiliano.
Preparation of the map ; collection of geological specimens.

20. Reconnaissance and completion of the map between
Zeylah and Hanar; map of the city of Hanar and of the
country neighbouring. By the Major of Staff Mocktar, assisted
by Adjutant-Major of the Staff Fouzy, attached to the expe-
dition of Ranif Pacha.

21. Topographical reconnaissance of the country between
the coast of the Bed Sea, near Massowah, and the plateau
of Abyssinia, with the completion of the map. By Colonels
Lockett and Field; Lieut. -Colonels Derrick and Balig; Majors
Duliu, Dennison, and Diuholy ; Captain Irgens, and several
other officers of the Egyptian staff.

22. Geological reconnaissance of the country between Mas-
sowah and the Abyssinian plateau, with collections of speci-
mens. By Mr. Mitchell, assisted by Emiliano.

23. Reconnaissance and survey of the country between
Berberah and Grebel Dobar, with completion of the map. By
Capitaine Abd-el-Rasach Nasmy, and other officers of the
Egyptian staff.

24. Reconnaissance and sounding, with completion of maps
of the ports of Kismaya and Dumford upon the coast of the
Indian Ocean. By Colonel Ward, assisted by Capitaine
Sidky, and other staff officers.

25. Reconnaissance of the route and completion of the map
between Siout (by the desert) and A'in el Aghieh. By Major
Diuholy, assisted by an officer of the Egyptian staff.

2G. Reconnaissance between Tajurra and Aoussa. By the

432

APPENDIX.

Staff-Lieutenant Mohammed Igyat, under the orders of Mun-
zinger Pacha.

27. Barometrical and thermometrical register taken by
officers in the provinces of the Equator, of Kordofan, of Dar-
four, and in all the expeditions.

Respectfully submitted,

STONE,

General of Division, Chief of the General Staff.

APPENDIX G.
MR. GOSCHEN'S TABULAR STATEMENT.

DIRECT TAXES.

On lands ... ... ... ... ... £4,302,400

On date trees ... ... ... ... 189,300

Licences on professions, etc. (contributions d'arts
et metiers)

INDIES CT TAXES.

Customs ...
Tobacco monopoly ...

KEVENUES OP GOVERNMENT.

From salt-works (salines)

Farming of fisheries (fermage du poisson frais, et
Matarieh — poisson sale) ...

Sundry taxes and revenues in the provinces

(Moudiriehs)

Revenues of the province of Soudan ...
Sundries

422,000

4,913,700

639,000
263,900

306,000
131,000

504,900

143,500

34,000

902,900

437,800

- 682,400
£6,936,800

APPENDIX.

433

TOTAL GENERAL TAXATION.
Local revenues, taxes, and dues; municipalities,

Cairo and Alexandria
Gonvernorats (governorships of small towns) and

police receipts
Canal, bridge, port, and other dues and tolls

Kailways ...

Amount received in anticipation of future land-
tax (Moukabala)

Repayments of advances made by Government
and arrears

£517,800

202,400
165,600

885,800
990,200

1,613,000
377,700

1,876,000

1,991,300

£10,804,100

APPENDIX H.

EXPORTS AND PRICES OF EGYPTIAN CROPS.

Exports of cotton, grain, cotton-seed, and sugar for the
years 1866, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1875 and 1876, from Custom-
house returns : —

The exports of cotton were : —

In 1866 ...

„ 1870

„ 1872

„ 1873 ...

Can tars.
1,785,000
1,845,452
2,168,181
2,187,035

COTTON SHIPMENTS TO DIFFEEENT POETS.

Cantars.

Total shipments to all ports in 1874-75 .T. 345,794

„ „ Liverpool, same year ... 292,243

„ „ France and Spain, do. ... 38,014

„ „ Austria, Italy, and Russia, do. 35,447

2F

434

APPENDIX

The exports of grain were : —

In 1866
„ 1870
„ 1872
„ 1873

Ardebs.

295,942
1,414,300
1,580,256
1,525,314

The exports of cotton-seed were : —

In 1866 ...

„ 1870 ...

„ 1872 ...
„ 1873

Ardebs.

750,877
1,264,507
1,334,223
1,282,469

EGYPTIAN COTTON-SEED.

Ardebs.

Total exportable crop (1875) estimated to be 1,450,000
Actual export ... ... ... 1,361,000

About half the crop went to Hull. About 90,000 ardebs estimated to
have been retained for sowing.

The exports of sugar were : —

In 1866
„ 1870
„ 1872
„ 1873

Cantars.
450

356,468
456,351
738,002

CROPS FOR 1876.

Ardebs.
Wheat, Saidi (100 ardebs equal to 63 imperial quarters) 817,219

Ditto, Behira
Barley 100

Beans, Saidi
Ditto, Behira 100
Indian corn 100
Cotton-seed 1000

65
64

100 tons

Cake of cotton-seed (1 cantar equal to 93 Ibs.)
Sugar

150,664

125,697

934,737

83,183

37,793

1,902,272

Cantars.
108,374-49
743,440-30

APPENDIX. 485

Cantars.

Cotton, from 1st of January to 31st of August ... 1,875,486-81

„ 1st of September to 31st of December ... 1,755,862-68

*3,631,349-49

AVERAGE PRICES DURING 1876.

Wheat 85 piastres Tarif , or 17s. the ardeb.

Beans 80 „ „ 16s. „

Barley 60 „ „ 12s. „

Maize 60 „ „ 12s. „

Cotton-seed 75 „ ,, 15s. „

Cotton-seed cake 20 „ „ £4 the ton.

Sugar 100 „ „ £25 „

Cotton 12 dollars the cantar, or 6d. per Ib.

* This large export of cotton arises from the large quantity held over
from 1875 for a cotton market, and from the hurried shipments in the
autumn of 1876 to provide money. The crop of 1875-76 was 3,000,000
cantars, the largest ever known. The crop of 1876-7 was a smaller one
—2,500,000 cantars.

LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.

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